Felipe Alarcón Peña

I am a Ph.D. in Astronomy. I am mostly interested in the discovery of protoplanets and the chemistry of planet formation.

I was born in Santiago, Chile, where I fell in love with the dark sky. Outside of the capital, you can get to observe the clearest skies in the world. Since I was in high school I have been learning and being invested in astronomical-related things. In college, I started as a mechanical engineering major but I decided to switch to Astronomy pushed by the love of the stars and the amazing astronomical facilities and departments in the country.

What really motivated my love for Astronomy is this particularly well-known image of the first protoplanetary disk taken at high spatial resolution with ALMA.

HL Tau, ALMA Collaboration

This image of HL tau taken by the ALMA Collaboration convinced me to become an astronomer and study planet formation, while I was an undergrad in college.

As a Chilean national, I enjoy the mountains, homemade fresh bread, Latin music, and obviously the clear skies. I’m also a catlover and a running enthusiast in my free time.