Yvonne Becherini

I am an Astroparticle Physicist currently working in Very High Energy gamma-ray astronomy.

My research group's pages

• lnu.se/en/ap
• astrogamma.se

My current projects

• http://alto-gamma-ray-observatory.org/
• https://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/
• https://www.cta-observatory.org/

About me

• Born in Florence (Italy)
• Citizenship: Italian and Swedish;
• Languages: Italian, English, French and Swedish
• Contact on Telegram: https://t.me/yvonnebecherini

Academic Degrees

• 2001: Laurea thesis in Astroparticle Physics, March 2001 at Bologna University (Italy). Title: Muon energy estimate through multiple Coulomb scattering for a neutrino oscillation study in MACRO.
• 2005: PhD thesis in Astroparticle Physics, defended July 2005 at Bologna University. Title: Development of the event processing software and detection performance studies in the Antares neutrino telescope.

Current and Past Employment

• 2017: Promotion to Docent
• 2013-on: Permanent appointment as Associate Professor in Physics at Linnéuniversitetet, Sweden.
• 2012-2013: Post-doc at Heidelberg Observatory (Germany), working on extra-galactic science with H.E.S.S.
• 2009-2012: Post-doc at Astroparticule et Cosmologie (APC, Paris, France) and Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet (LLR, Ecole polytechnique, Palaiseau, France)
• 2008-2009: Post-doc at APC laboratory (Paris, France) in VHE gamma-ray astronomy (H.E.S.S. and CTA)
• 2006-2007: Post-doc at CEA/Saclay IRFU (France) in neutrino astronomy with ANTARES
• 2005-2006: Post-doc at Bologna University (Italy) working on neutrino astronomy in ANTARES

Teaching

• 2016/2017/2018/2019 at Linnaeus University:
  • Astrophysics
  • Cosmic Rays and High Energy Astrophysics
  • Cosmology and Relativity
• 2015 at Linnaeus University:
  • Astrophysics
  • Cosmic Rays and High-Energy Astrophysics
• 2013/2014 at Linnaeus University: Astrophysics
• 2011: Tutor of three students in the "Astronomie et Mécanique Céleste" course of the Paris Observatory
• 2002: Support to the Physics teaching at the Bologna University. Computing course.

Post-doctoral researchers supervision

• 2017-2018: Dr. Satyendra Thoudam.                                          
• 2014-2016: Dr. H. Prokoph, Dr. D. Prokhorov and Dr. S. Thoudam.

PhD students supervision

• Mohanraj Senniappan (2017-)
• Tomas Bylund (2017-)

Bachelor/Master students supervision

• 2018:
  • Dominic François Sundbäck (Bachelor thesis)
  • Sotirios Tsivras (Bachelor thesis)
• 2017: Emma Fransson (Bachelor thesis)
• 2016: Tom Andersson (Bachelor thesis)
• 2015: Tobias Möllerström (Bachelor thesis)
• 2002-2005: Co-advisor of four Laurea theses at Bologna University: students M. Mussini, G. Strozzi, M. Piraccini, P. Calandrini.

Membership in PhD thesis committees

• 05/06/14: PhD thesis of Oscar Larsson, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
• 22/05/15: PhD thesis of Shabnam Iyyani, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
• 18/12/15: PhD thesis of Rickard Ström, Uppsala, Sweden
• 29/02/16: PhD thesis of Marcel Zoll, Stockholm University, Sweden
• 21/10/16: PhD thesis of Eskil Varenius, Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers, Göteborg, Sweden
• 12/06/17: PhD thesis of Samuel Flis, Stockholm University, Sweden
• 27/10/17: Licentiate thesis of Vlasta Valan, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
• 28/09/18: PhD thesis of Edvin Sidebo, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
• 10/06/19: PhD thesis of Sunny Vagnozzi, Stockholm University, Sweden

Research

• My research activities since early 2008 focus on Very-High-Energy gamma-ray astrophysics with my participation in the H.E.S.S. experiment and in the CTA project. Previously, from 1999 through 2007 I have been working in neutrino physics and astrophysics in the MACRO and ANTARES experiments.
• I am an experimental astrophysicist with a strong focus in analysis methods. My research projects include the study of extra-galactic cosmic accelerators called Active Galactic Nuclei, peculiar objects composed of a disk of matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole, generating powerful relativistic jets. Since 2008, I have been involved in the discovery of many VHE sources with the multivariate analysis method for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes I developed.
• From 2013 me and my group are focused on a new project called "ALTO". ALTO is a Very-High-Energy gamma-ray observatory to be installed at high altitudes (more than 5 km of height) in the Southern hemisphere, either in Argentina or in Chile. See also http://alto-gamma-ray-observatory.org/.

Funding

I have received research grants from the following Foundations or Institutes:

• Marco-Polo fellowship
• Crafoord
• Magnus Bergvalls
• Lars Hiertas Minne
• The Royal Academy of Sciences
• The Märta and Eric Holmberg Endowment at the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund
• Längmanska kulturfonden
• Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse
• Linnaeus Technical Center

Management responsibilities

• 2013-ongoing: Group Leader of H.E.S.S. and CTA at Linnaeus University, Sweden
• 2015-ongoing: Swedish representative in the CTA Consortium Board
• 2015-2016: Swedish representative in the "CTA Observatory gGmbH"
• 2013-ongoing: Principal Investigator of ALTO, a new project to build a wide-field Very High Energy gamma-ray observatory in the Southern hemisphere

Peer-reviewing responsibilities

• Reviewer for the Croatian Science Foundation and for the Dutch National Science Foundation
• Referee for the "The Astrophysical Journal" (ApJ, IOP), for the Journal "Astroparticle Physics" (Elsevier) and for the Journal "Nuclear Instruments Methods A" (Elsevier)
• Reviewer for the Italian "Agenzia Nazionale per la Valutazione del sistema Univ. e della Ricerca" (ANVUR)

Other responsibilities

• 2018: Associated editor for the Journal "Computing and Software for Big Science", Springer

Presence/articles in mass media

• "Växjöforskare deltar i globalt rymdprojekt", Smålandsposten, July the 23rd, 2015
• "Astrofysiker får prestigeuppdrag", Smålandsposten, December the 16th, 2015
• "Gammaastronom i glasriket", Populär Astronomi, September 2016
• "CTA: Världens största gammaobservatorium", Populär Astronomi, September 2016
• "Spaning efter universums äldsta stjärnor", Forskning och Framsteg, April 2016
• "För mycket extern finansiering skadar forskningen", Tidningen Curie, January 2018
• "Yvonne Becherini leder Växjös rymdforskning", Smålandsposten, January 2019

News items at the Linnaeus University website

• Researchers in astroparticle physics present the ALTO project for the first time, 15/11/16
• Linnaeus University in focus in the new issue of Populär Astronomi, 14/09/16
• Headquarters selected for next generation telescope, 15/06/16
• Researcher in physics awarded Crafoord grant for studies of active galactic nuclei, 26/05/16
• 1242 water cisterns will examine radiation from space, 28/06/18

Other educational qualifications and popular science activities

• 2004: Rapporteur of the poster session of the 7th School of Non-acc. Part. Astroph., ICTP, Trieste
• 2006-2007-2008: Presentations at the Salon de la recherche, Paris, and Fête de la science in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, and at La ville européenne des sciences
• 2013: Organizer of the Linnaeus Physics Colloquia at Linnaeus University
• 2014: Organizer of the H.E.S.S. extra-galactic science Face-to-Face meeting at Linnaeus University; Organizer of "Partikeldagarna" at Linnaeus University
• 2016: Organizer of the H.E.S.S. general meeting at Linnaeus University
• 2017 & 2018: Organizer of "Astronomi Dag och Natt" at Linnaeus University

Commissions

• 2016-2020: Elected member of the National Committee for Astronomy of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• 2016-2019: Elected member of the board for "Svenska fysikersamfundet" ("Swedish Physical Society") in the section for elementary particle and astroparticle physics
• 2015- Member of the International Astronomical Union
• 2015- Member of the European Physical Society

Social media

• https://twitter.com/YvonneBecherini
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonne-becherini-a2b8992/