Dr. Gioia Rau is an Astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where she works on exoplanets and stellar astrophysics using artificial intelligence techniques, the most advanced computational models, and data from the largest telescopes on Earth and in space. Dr. Rau has a track record of numerous scientific publications, international collaborations, and leads the scientific side of multiple NASA mission concepts in development.
Dr. Rau has received numerous awards for scientific merits, and she supervises interns, PhD students, and postdocs. Dr. Rau is highly committed and passionate about fostering and promoting DEIA (Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility) values, especially by supporting women and other underrepresented minorities in pursuing scientific careers.
Dr. Rau received her PhD in Astrophysics with honors from the University of Vienna, Austria, in 2016, and her Masters in Physics and Astrophysics Summa cum Laude from La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2011. Previous to joining NASA's Goddard laboratory of Exoplanets and Stellar Astrophysics in 2017, Dr. Rau was awarded a Visiting Scientist position at the prestigious ESO (European Southern Observatory) in Germany. Since 2020 Dr. Rau was promoted Research Assistant Professor at CUA.