Welcome!

Welcome to my homepage! My name is Alice Somigliana and I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Planet Formation and Exoplanets (PFE) department at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg, Germany.

About me

I was born and raised in Italy, in a cute little village in the north (where I took the background picture) very near Milan - where I obtained both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees. I started working at MPIA in February 2025, collaborating closely with Giulia Perotti and Myriam Benisty.

I study protoplanetary discs, the cradles of planetary systems. I am mainly interested in their evolutionary processes, especially in discriminating between the possible scenarios from the theoretical and numerical perspective; in this context, I am the main active developer of Diskpop, a Python code to perform population synthesis of protoplanetary discs. Since my postdoc, I also started exploring JWST observations - a fun change of perspective and fruitful learning experience. I did my PhD at ESO in Garching bei München, under the supervision of Prof. Leonardo Testi (Bologna University), in the context of the ECOGAL ERC Synergy grant. For a detailed description of my current and past projects, see My research.

In my free time, I enjoy a lot of crafty activities such as crocheting, knitting and sewing. I like to practice many sports (without being a pro in any of them, just for fun) like hiking, inline skating, volleyball and biking. For frivolties, chit-chats and travel pictures, see Personal.