Astronomer Daniella Calzetti Honored With Prestigious Visiting Professorship in Sweden

Daniela Calzetti, professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has been honored with her selection as the 2016 Tage Erlander Visiting Professor by the Swedish Research Council. As a result of this honor, Dr. Calzetti will spend six months in 2016 in Sweden, mainly at the University of Stockholm. The visiting professorship was established in 1981 to honor Tage Erlander, who served as prime minister of Sweden from 1946 to 1969.

Dr. Calzetti’s research is focused on how galaxies are formed and why they are different shapes. She states, “I’m not convinced I have enough lifetime left to answer our questions about how galaxies are formed.” She is known for her “Calzetti’s Law,” developed in the 1990s, which allows astronomers to estimate how much information they are missing due to dust obscuring images of distant galaxies.

Dr. Calzetti holds a Ph.D. from the University of Rome in Italy.