Amina Helmi
Amina Helmi is an Argentine astronomer. She is a professor at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.Academic career
Since 2003 Helmi has been faculty member at the University of Groningen, and has been a full professor since 2014. Previously, she held postdoctoral positions at the University of La Plata in Argentina, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, and Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She received her PhD from Leiden University in 2000 with a thesis entitled "The formation of the Galactic Halo", supervised by Tim de Zeeuw and Simon White.Research
Her research focuses on the evolution and dynamics of galaxies, in particular the Milky Way, using locations, velocities, ages, and chemical abundances of stars to understand the formation process of galaxies. She also studies the nature of dark matter. In her research, Helmi uses computer simulations as well as observational data from for example the Gaia space telescope. The Helmi stream was named after her.Recognition
In 2019, Helmi was named one of the four winners of the Spinoza Prize. She has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2017.
