Erika Rea

My name is Erika Rea, I was born in 1998 and I am an astrophysicist. My main research interests concern exoplanets and radio astronomy, with a particular focus on the search for intelligent life in the universe (SETI). At the European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC) I worked on the study of exoplanets using data from the ASTEP telescope, an activity that led to the validation of three exoplanets (Rea et al. 2026). I also collaborated with the SETI program at the University of California, Berkeley, analyzing data from the Green Bank Telescope, and carried out research at the University of Heidelberg on simulations of the Local Bubble and its X-ray emission (Girichidis, Rea et al. 2026). I am currently in Antarctica, at the Concordia Station, where I am spending a year as a winterover astrophysicist. I am part of the ASTEP collaboration and contribute to exoplanet observations during the Antarctic polar night, as well as being involved in other scientific activities including cosmic ray measurements, solar radiation monitoring and atmospheric studies with LIDAR instrumentation, hydroponics, etc.