1. Annalisa Calamida
National Optical Astronomy Observatory - AURA
950 N Cherry Ave
Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
E-mail: calamida@noao.edu, Phone: +1-520-318-8405, +3934070867
www.linkedin.com/pub/annalisa-calamida/a/787/143
Resolved stellar population studies - Imaging and spectroscopic data reduction
– Stellar photometry and astrometry - Data simulation – Public outreach
• Scientific interests: globular clusters, Galactic bulge, stellar evolution, variable stars
• Imaging data reduction: stellar photometry and astrometry with DAOPHOTIV,
ROMAFOT, img2xym, Photpip on images collected with HST-ACS, HST-WFC3, VLT-
FORS1, VLT-VIMOS, VLT-MAD, VLT-HAWK-I, 2.2m MPG-WFI, 1.54m DANISH-DFOSC,
NTT-EFOSC2, NTT-SUSI2, 4mCTIO-NEWFIRM, 4mCTIO-DECam, CFHT-Megacam
• Data simulation: near- and mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopic simulations for the
European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT, ESO)
• Observing experience: NTT-EFOSC2 (La Silla, ESO), GEMINI-GMOS-S (Cerro Pachón,
NOAO), 4m Blanco-DECam (CTIO), 4m Mayall-Mosaic3 (NOAO)
• Conference organization: principal organizer, or member of LOC and SOC
• Teaching experience in high-schools and universities
• Public outreach: Astrophysics Museum guide, public talks, seminars, public blogs,
European Research nights
Computational skills
• Data analysis: IRAF, IDL, Aladin , Topcat, Ds9, Skycat, Gaia, Supermongo
• Programming languages: IDL, FORTRAN, Basic, HTML
• Applications: Latex, Open Office, Windows Office packages
• Operative systems: OSX, Unix/Linux, Windows
Languages
Italian (mother tongue), English (excellent), German (basic), French (basic)
Affiliations
• Member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) since 2013
• Member of Division H (Interstellar Matter and Local Universe, Star Clusters and
Associations), of Division G (Stars and Stellar Physics) and of Division C (Education,
Outreach and Heritage) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) since 2006
• Member of the Italian Astronomical Society (SAIT) since 2007

2. Page 2
Education
PhD in Astronomy (October 2007), thesis title: “Omega Centauri: a possible link between globular
clusters and dwarf spheroidals”, Università di Roma Tor Vergata (Italy), Advisors: Prof. G. Bono
and Prof. R. Buonanno
M.A. in Physics (September 2003), Advisor: Prof. R. Buonanno
Experience
Postdoctoral research associate at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory – AURA since
February 2016. I analyze images of faint white dwarfs collected with the Wide Field Camera 3
on board the Hubble Space Telescope to produce a set of spectro-photometric standard stars.
This set of faint standard stars will be fundamental to calibrate photometry collected with
current and future surveys, such as Panstarrs and LSST.
Postdoctoral research fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute - AURA from November
2012 to January 2016. I analyzed images of the Galactic bulge collected with the Advanced
Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope to
identify astrometric micro-lensing events. The main goal of the project is to detect isolated
neutron stars and black holes in our Galaxy. By analyzing these data, I was able to identify for
the first time a white dwarf cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge and to characterize the bulge
initial mass function down to 0.15 solar masses (HST press release STScI-2015-38).
Opticon Young Scientist at the Rome Observatory - INAF from October 2010 to November
2012. I helped in updating the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) Science Case,
according to the new project requirements, and I organized seminars for scientists and for the
public to promote the E-ELT project all over Europe. I also organized an international
conference on the synergies between present and future surveys and the future extremely large
telescopes, “Feeding the Giants: ELTs in the era of Surveys”
Design Reference Mission postdoc at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) from July
2008 to July 2010. I simulated near- and mid-infrared images and spectra of stars and giant-
planet-mass objects for three observational cases proposed by the E-ELT Science Working
Group. The simulations were performed using different assumptions on the PSFs, according to
the adaptive optic mode adopted, the atmosphere, the site, and the telescope and instrument
characteristics. The data were reduced and analyzed to test the feasibility of the proposed
observations and to provide feedback to the project.
PhD at the Rome University and at the Rome Observatory from October 2003 to November
2007, working on multi-band photometry of Galactic Globular Clusters.
Contributed and invited talks
• “New Insights on the Galactic bulge initial mass function”, FLASH talk, NOAO-AURA, Tucson,
USA, October 2015 (I)
• “New Insights on the Galactic bulge initial mass function”, The Stellar IMF at low masses
workshop, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA, June 2015 (C)
• “Old low-mass stars as probe of stellar formation and evolution”, Colloquium at the Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, USA, May 2015 (I)

3. Page 3
• “First detection of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge”, Colloquium at the
University of Michigan-Dearborn, Detroit, USA, November 2014 (I)
• “First detection of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge”, Resolved and
Unresolved Stellar Population conference, ESO, Garching, Germany, October 2014 (C)
• “First detection of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the Galactic bulge”, HSTIV conference:
Looking into the future, Rome, Italy, March 2014 (C)
• “The white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge”, AAS 223rd Meeting, Washington DC,
USA, January 2014, AAS22331508C (C)
• “The white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge”, CTIO 50 years workshop, La Serena,
Chile, May 2013 (C)
• “Galactic globular cluster ages by observing white dwarfs with the E-ELT”, E-ELT Science Meeting,
Garching, Germany, February 2013 (C)
• The sound-track of Omega Centauri variable stars at high frequency”, EWASS 2012, Rome, Italy,
July 2012 (C)
• “Ageing the Universe with E-ELT”, EWASS 2012, Rome, Italy, July 2012 (C)
• “Strömgren photometry of the Bulge: the Baade’s Window and the globular cluster NGC 6522”, RIA
Workshop on Gaia, Granada, Spain, May 2011 (C)
• “Imaging and spectroscopy of massive dense young clusters with the E-ELT”, Workshop
"Astronomy in Megastructures", Crete, Greece, May 2010 (C)
• “Deep optical and Near-Infrared photometry of the globular cluster ω Cen”, ESO workshop “MAD
and Beyond”, Garching, Germany, June 2009 (C)
• “Strömgren photometry of ω Cen Red Giants”, SAIT workshop, Pisa, Italy, April 2009 (C)
• “Observing giant-planet-mass objects in the LMC with E-ELT”, UK E-ELT Science Workshop,
Edinburgh, UK, October 2009 (I)
• “Giant-planet-mass objects in the LMC”, E-ELT Design Reference Mission ESO Workshop,
Garching, Germany, June 2009 (C)
• “A new method to estimate the ages of globular clusters: the case of NGC 3201”, Ages of stars, IAUS
258, Baltimore, USA, October 2008 (C)
• “On the radial distribution of white dwarfs in the Galactic globular cluster Omega Cen”, XXI
Century challenges for stellar evolution, Cefalu’, Italy, August 2007 (C)
• “Metallicity distribution of ω Cen Red Giants based on the Strömgren m1 metallicity index”, IAUS
241, La Palma, Spain, June 2006 (C)
• “Multi-band photometry in Omega Centauri”, “Stellar Pulsation and Evolution” Workshop,
Rome, Italy, June 2005 (C)
• “Eclipsing binaries in the galactic globular cluster Omega Centauri”, Cefalu’, Interacting binaries,
Italy, June 2004 (C)
Scientific seminars
• “The white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge: first evidence”, Teramo Observatory
(INAF), Italy, November 2013
• “Detection of a large population of white dwarfs in the direction of the Galactic bulge”, ESO lunch
talk, Germany, March 2013

4. Page 4
• “The European ELT”, Bologna University, Bologna, Italy, May 2012
• “The European ELT”, Napoli Observatory - INAF, May 2011
• “The European ELT”, Rome University, Rome, Italy, November 2010
Seminars held at different institutions such as Rome University, Rome Observatory, ESO,
Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Space Telescope Science Institute
List of Publications
All my refereed publications can be downloaded at:
http://esoads.eso.org/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?&jou_pick=NO&author=Calamida%2C+A
The following publication has been submitted to ApJ and the reply to the referee has been sent on
February 25, 2016:
- Correnti, M., Gennaro, M., Kalirai, J. S., Brown, T. B., Calamida, A., “Constraining globular cluster
age uncertainties using the IR color-magnitude diagram”, 2016, ApJ, submitted
R1: Randall, S., Calamida, A., Fontaine, G., Monelli, M., Bono, G., Alonso, M.L., Van Grootel, V., et
al., “Pulsating hot O subdwarfs in ω Centauri: mapping a unique instability strip on the Extreme
Horizontal Branch”, 2016, ApJ, accepted, arXiv1602.05470
R2: Calamida, A., Sahu, K. C., Casertano, S., Anderson, J., Cassisi, S., Gennaro, M., Cignoni, M., et
al., “New insights on the Galactic bulge initial mass function”, 2015, ApJ, 810, 8
R3: Latour, M., Randall, S. K., Fontaine, G., Bono, G., Calamida, A., Brassard, P. “A Helium-Carbon
Correlation on the Extreme Horizontal Branch in Omega Centauri”, 2014, ApJ, 795, 106
R4: Marconi, M., Musella, I., Di Criscienzo, M., Cignoni, M., Dall'Ora, M., Bono, G., Ripepi, V.,
Brocato, E., Raimondo, G., Grado, A., Limatola, L., Coppola, G., Moretti, M. I., Stetson, P.B.,
Calamida, A., et al. “STREGA: STRucture and Evolution of the GAlaxy - I. Survey overview and first
results”, 2014, MNRAS, 444, 3809
R5: Calamida, A., Sahu, K. C., Anderson, J., Casertano, S., Cassisi, S., Salaris, M., Brown, T., et al.,
“First detection of the white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge”, 2014, ApJ, 790, 164
R6: Calamida, A., Bono, G., Lagioia, E. P, Milone, A. P., Fabrizio, M., Saviane, I., Moni Bidin, C., et
al.,“Strömgren and near-infrared photometry of metal-rich bulge globular clusters. I. NGC6528 and its
surrounding field”, 2014, A&A, 565, A8
R7: Lagioia, E. P., Milone, A. P., Stetson, P. B., Bono, G., Prada Moroni, P. G., Dall'Ora, M.,
Aparicio, A., Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al., “On the Kinematic Separation of Field and Cluster
Stars across the Bulge Globular NGC6528”, 2014, ApJ, 785, 50
R8: Calamida, A., Monelli, M., Milone, A. P., Bono, G., Pietrinferni, A., Lagioia, E. P., “A new visual
- near-infrared diagnostic to estimate the metallicity of cluster and field dwarf stars” 2012, A&A, 544,
A152
R9: Calamida, A., Bono, G., Corsi, C. E, Iannicola, G., Ripepi, V., Anthony-Twarog, B., Twarog, B., et
al.,“On a new theoretical calibration of the Strömgren hk metallicity index: NGC6522 as a first test
case”, 2011, ApJ, 742, L28
R10: Troisi, F., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Pietrinferni, A., Weiss, A., Fabrizio, M., Ferraro, I., Di Cecco,
A., Iannicola, G., Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al.,“On a New Parameter to Estimate the Helium
Content in Old Stellar Systems”, 2011, PASP, 123, 879

5. Page 5
R11: Randall, S. K., Calamida, A., Fontaine, G., Bono, G., Brassard, P., “Rapidly Pulsating Hot
Subdwarfs in ω Centauri: A New Instability Strip on the Extreme Horizontal Branch?”, 2011, ApJ, 737,
L27
R12: Moehler, S., Dreizler, S., Lanz, T., Bono, G., Sweigart, A. V., Calamida, A., Nonino, M., “The
hot horizontal-branch stars in ω Centauri”, 2011, A&A, 526, A136
R13: Randall, S. K., Calamida, A., Bono, G., “Rapid extreme horizontal branch pulsators in ω
Centauri”, 2010, Ap&SS, 329, 55 (DOI: 10.1007/s10509-010-0357-3)
R14: Di Cecco, A., Becucci, R., Bono, G., Monelli, M., Stetson, P. B., Degl'Innocenti, S., Prada
Moroni, P. G., Nonino, M., Weiss, A., Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al., “On the Absolute Age of the
Globular Cluster M92”, 2010, PASP, 122, 991
R15: Di Cecco, A., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Pietrinferni, A., Becucci, R., Cassisi, S., Degli’Innocenti,
Iannicola, G., Prada Moroni, P. G., Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al.,“On the ΔV bump
HB Parameter in
Globular Clusters”, 2010, ApJ, 712, 527
R16: Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., VandenBerg, D. A., Calamida A., Dall’Ora, M., Iannicola, G., Amico,
P., et al.,“On a new Near-Infrared method to estimate the absolute ages of star clusters: the case of
NGC3201”, 2010, ApJ, 708, L74
R17: Calamida, A., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Freyhammer, L. M., Piersimoni, A. M., Buonanno, R.,
Caputo, F., et al.,“Strömgren photometry of Galactic Globular Clusters. II. Metallicity distribution of
red giants in Omega Centauri”, 2009, ApJ, 706, 1277
R18: Iannicola, G., Monelli, M., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., Zoccali, M., et
al., “On the Radial Distribution of Horizontal Branch Stars in NGC 2808”, 2009, ApJ, 696, L120
R19: Randall, S. K., Calamida, A., Bono, G., “A search for Extreme Horizontal Branch pulsators in ω
Cen”, 2009, AASP, 159, 88
R20: Randall, S. K., Calamida, A., Bono, G., “Discovery of a rapidly pulsating subdwarf B star
candidate in ω Centauri“, 2009, A&A, 494, 1053
R21: Bono, G., Stetson, P.B., Sanna, N., Piersimoni, A., Freyhammer, L.M., Bouzid, Y., Buonanno, R.,
Calamida, A., et al.,“On the relative distance of Omega Centauri and 47 Tucanae”, 2009, ApJ, 686,
L87
R22: Calamida, A., Corsi ,C. E., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Prada Moroni, P. G., Degl'Innocenti, S.,
Ferraro, I., et al.,“On the white dwarf cooling sequence of the globular cluster ω Centauri”, 2008, ApJ,
673, L29
R23: Moehler, S., Dreizler, S., Lanz, T., Bono, G., Sweigart, A. V., Calamida, A., Monelli, M.,
Nonino, M., “The Hottest Horizontal-Branch Stars in ω Centauri - Late Hot Flasher vs. Helium
Enrichment”, 2007, A&A, 475, L5
R24: Calamida, A., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Freyhammer, L. M., Cassisi, S., Grundahl, F., Pietrinferni,
A., et al.,“Strömgren photometry of Galactic Globular Clusters. I. New Calibrations of the metallicity
index”, 2007, ApJ, 670, 400
R25: Castellani, V., Calamida, A., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Freyhammer, L. M., Degl’Innocenti, S.,
Prada Moroni, P. G., et al., “Star Counts in the Globular Cluster ω Centauri. I. Bright Stellar
Components”, 2007, ApJ, 663, 1021

6. Page 6
R26: Del Principe, M., Piersimoni, A. M., Storm, J., Caputo, F., Bono, G., Stetson, P. B., Castellani, M.,
Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al.,“A Pulsational Distance to ω Centauri Based on Near-Infrared
Period-Luminosity Relations of RR Lyrae Stars”, 2006, ApJ, 652, 362
R27: Calamida, A., Stetson, P. B., Bono, G., Freyhammer, L. M., Grundahl, F., Hilker, M., Andersen,
M. I., et al.,“Reddening distribution across the center of the globular cluster ω Centauri” , 2005, ApJ,
634, L69
R28: Freyhammer, L. M., Monelli, M., Bono, G., Cunti, P., Ferraro, I., Calamida, A., Degl’Innocenti,
S., et al.,“On the anomalous Red Giant Branch of the Globular Cluster ω Centauri”, 2005, ApJ, 623,
860
R29: Monelli, M., Corsi, C. E., Castellani, V., Ferraro, I., Iannicola, G., Prada Moroni, P. G., Bono, G.,
Buonanno, R., Calamida, A., et al.,“The discovery of more than 2000 White Dwarfs in the Globular
Cluster Omega Centauri”, 2005, ApJ, 621, L117
All my non-refereed publications can be downloaded at:
http://esoads.eso.org/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?author=Calamida%2C+A.&jou_pick=EXCL
Contributed talks:
Calamida, A., et al., “The white dwarf cooling sequence of the Galactic bulge”, 2013, arXiv1308.1936
Calamida, A., et al., “The soundtrack of RR Lyrae in Omega Cen at high-frequency”, 2013,
arXiv1304.0685
Calamida, A., et al., “Strömgren photometry of the Bulge: the Baade’s Window and the globular cluster
NGC6522”, 2011, sca.conf, 286
Calamida, A., et al., “Strömgren photometry of ω Cen Red Giants”, 2010, MmSAI, 14, 139
Calamida, A., et al.,“A new method to estimate the ages of globular clusters: the case of NGC 3201”,
2009, IAUS, 258,189
Calamida, A., et al.,“On the radial distribution of white dwarfs in the Galactic globular cluster Omega
Cen”,2008, MmSAI, 79, 347
Calamida, A., et al.,“Metallicity distribution of ω Cen Red Giants based on the Strömgren m1 metallicity
index”, 2007, IAUS, 241, 223
Calamida, A., et al., “Multi-band photometry in Omega Centauri”, 2006, MmSAI, 77, 324
Calamida, A., et al.,“Eclipsing binaries in the galactic globular cluster Omega Centauri”, 2005,
AIPC,797, 61
Posters:
Calamida, A., et al., “Observing Brown Dwarfs in the Magellanic Cloud Star-Forming Regions with the
E-ELT”, 2011, sca.conf, 350
Calamida, A., et al., “Deep and accurate near-infrared photometry of the Galactic globular cluster
omega Cen”, 2009, MmSAI, 80, 73
Calamida, A., et al., “Giant-planet-mass objects in Galactic and LMC star-forming regions”, JWST &
ELTs: An ideal combinations Workshop, April 2009, Garching, Germany
Calamida, A., et al., “Strömgren metallicity calibration: the m1, b-y relation”, 2008, MmSAI, 79, 673

7. Page 7
Calamida, A., et al., “Relative and absolute calibration for multi-band data collected with the 2.2m
ESO/MPI and 1.54m Danish Telescopes”, 2008, Springer-Verlag series "ESO Astrophysics
Symposia”, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, p. 589
Calamida, A., et al., “Deep and accurate near-infrared photometry of the Galactic globular cluster
omega Cen”, 2009, MmSAI, 80, 73
Technical reports:
Calamida, A., Verma, A., Hook, I., Liske, J., Kissler-Patig, M.,“Report on the Workshop Feeding the
Giants: ELTs in the Era of Surveys”, 2011, Msngr, 146, 38
(http://www.eso.org/sci/publications/messenger/archive/no.146-dec11/messenger-no146-38-41.pdf)
Calamida, A., Comeron, F., Zinnecker, H., “Giant-planet-mass objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud”,
ESO E-ELT Design Reference Mission report S5_3
(http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/science/drm/S5/S5_3_report.pdf)
Calamida,A., Comeron, F., Zinnecker, H., “Characterizing the lowest mass freely floating objects in
star forming regions”, ESO E-ELT Design Reference Mission report S5_1
(http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/science/drm/S5/S5_1_report.pdf)
Calamida,A., Zinnecker, H., Comeron, F., McCaughrean, M., “The Centers of Massive Dense Young
Clusters: deep ELT infrared imaging and 3D spectroscopy”, ESO E-ELT Design Reference Mission
report S5_2 (http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/eelt/science/drm/S5/S5_2_report.pdf)
PI and Co-I activity
HST accepted proposal:
- GO-14224 (PI: Gallart): “The lowest mass galaxies with extended star formation history: a
cosmological challenge”, imaging, ACS-WFC3/HST
- GO-14124 (PI: Correnti): “Pushing to Sub-Gyr Globular Cluster Ages: the IR CMD of NGC6397”,
imaging, WFC3-HST
- GO-13707 (PI: Randall): “Mapping the Extreme Horizontal Branch instability strip in Omega
Centauri”, ultraviolet spectroscopy, COS-HST
- GO- 13458 (PI: Sahu): “Detecting Isolated Black Holes through Astrometric Microlensing”, time-
series photometry, ACS/WFC3-HST
NOAO accepted proposal:
- 2015A-0151, PI: Calamida: “The newly discovered Extreme Horizontal Branch pulsators in ω Cen: a
class apart?”, time-series photometry, DECam-Blanco-4m
- GS-2014A-Q-86, PI: Calamida: “The nature of hot horizontal branch and blue straggler stars in the
Galactic bulge”, spectroscopy, GMOS-S
ESO accepted proposals:
- 097.D-0970, PI: Randall: “Do Extreme Horizontal Branch star binaries exist in globular clusters?”
- 097.D-0880, PI: Kerzendorf: “The progenitor of the Type Ia supernova SN 185“

8. Page 8
- 093.D-0873, PI: Randall: “The intrinsic nature of Extreme Horizontal Branch stars in ω Cen”,
spectroscopy, VLT-VIMOS
- 093.D-0522, PI: Zoccali: “Measuring the Masses of Isolated Black Holes and Neutron Stars through
Astrometric Microlensing”, imaging, VLT-VIMOS
- 093.D-0170, PI: Marconi: “STREGA@VST: STRucture and Evolution of the Galaxy”, imaging, VST-
Omegacam
- 092.D-0732, PI: Marconi:“STREGA@VST: STRucture and Evolution of the Galaxy”, imaging,
VSTOmegacam
- 091.D-0791, PI: Randall: “The newly discovered Extreme Horizontal Branch pulsators in Omega
Centauri: a class apart?”, imaging and spectroscopy, NTT-EFOSC2, VLT-FORS2
- 091.D-0623: PI: Marconi: “STREGA@VST: STRucture and Evolution of the Galaxy”, imaging, VST-
Omegacam
- 090.D-0168: PI: Marconi: “STREGA@VST: STRucture and Evolution of the Galaxy”, imaging, VST-
Omegacam
- 089.D-0413, PI: Randall: “Mapping the instability strip for the newly discovered sdO pulsators:
systematic differences between the globular cluster and the field population?”, spectroscopy, VLT-
FORS2
- 088.D-4015, PI: Marconi: “STREGA@VST: STRucture and Evolution of the Galaxy”, imaging, VST-
Omegacam
- 087.D-0216, PI: Catelan:”Astroseismology of two newly discovered rapid sdB pulsators in ω Cen with
ULTRACAM: a unique opportunity to solve the mistery of extreme horizontal branch evolution in
globular clusters”, Imaging, NTT-ULTRACAM
- 386.D-0669, PI: Randall: “Revealing the nature of the new Extreme Horizontal Branch pulsator in ω
Cen”, Spectroscopy, VLT-FORS2
- 085.D-0374, PI: Calamida: "Strömgren photometry in metal-rich globular clusters to improve the
metallicity calibration of the m1 index", Imaging, NTT-EFOSC2
- 083.D-0898, PI: Calamida: "Strömgren photometry in metal-rich globular clusters to improve the
metallicity calibration of the m1 index", Imaging, NTT-EFOSC2
- 082.D-0877, PI: Calamida: "Deep Near-Infrared photometry of the globular cluster NGC362 to
constrain the second parameter problem", Imaging, VLT-HAWK-I
- 081.D-0139, PI: Moehler: "The Origin of the Hottest Horizontal Branch Stars in ω Cen - Late Hot
Flasher vs. Helium Enrichment", Spectroscopy, VLT-FORS1
- 081.D-0903, PI: Calamida: "Who is Who along the white dwarf cooling sequence of ω Cen?",
Spectroscopy, VLT-FORS1
- 077.D-0696, PI: Freyhammer: "Origin, Duplicity and Abundances of constant and oscillating Blue
Stragglers in Omega Cen", Spectroscopy, UVES+GIRAFFE-VLT
- 076.D-0611, PI: Bono: "Who is Who along the white dwarf cooling sequence of ω Cen?", Spectroscopy,
VLT-FORS1
- 075.D-0824 - PI: Monelli: "New deep Near-Infrared photometry to shed light on the ω Cen puzzle",
Imaging, ISAAC-VLT

9. Page 9
MAD-VLT approved Science Demonstration Proposals:
- SD2, ID96406, PI: Calamida: "Deep into the lower main sequence of the globular cluster NGC3201"
- SD2, ID96404, PI: Marchetti: "Nailing down the second parameter problem in NGC288 and NGC362"
- SD3, ID96463, PI: Calamida:“A new spin to constrain the absolute age of 47 Tuc”
- SD3, ID96465/ID96466, PI: Di Cecco:“The absolute age of the Galactic globular clusters”
- SD3, ID96467/ID96468, PI: Sanna: “A new spin to constrain the absolute age of metal-rich globular
clusters”
X-Shooter approved Science Verification Proposal: - 60.A-9403, PI: Calamida: “The Origin of the
Hottest Horizontal Branch Stars in ω Cen”
Research stays
October - December 2004: Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (DAO-NRC), Victoria,
Canada, to collaborate with Professor P. B. Stetson
January – March 2006: DAO-NRC, Victoria, Canada, to collaborate with Professor P. B. Stetson
Referee activity
Four articles refereed: one for the Astrophysical Journal, one for Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, one for New Astronomy and one for Experimental Astronomy
Two projects refereed for the Romanian Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research,
Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI)
Panel activity
Member of the NOAO TAC since October 2015
OPC panel scientific collaborator at ESO in May 2010
Institutional responsibilities
07/2008 – 10/2012 Member of the E-ELT Science Office, ESO, Germany
09/2014 - Now Member of the STScI PANSTARRS1 group, AURA, USA
03/2015 – Now Member of the GMOX Science team (spectrograph to be built for
Gemini)
Conference organization
• Organization (SOC) of the workshop: “The Stellar IMF at Low Masses”, Space Telescope
Science Institute, Baltimore, USA, June 2014
(http://www.stsci.edu/institute/conference/stellar-imf/)
• Help in the organization (LOC) of the conference “Science with the Hubble Space Telescope 4”,
Rome, Italy, March 2014 (http://www.stsci.edu/institute/conference/hst4/ )
• Organization (SOC) of the Special Session: “The European Extremely Large Telescope” at the
EWASS 2012 meeting, Rome, Italy, July 2012 (http://www.ifsi-roma.inaf.it/ewass2012/)

10. Page 10
• Organization of the conference: “Feeding the Giants: ELTs in the era of surveys”, Ischia, Italy,
September 2011 (http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2011/feedgiant.html)
• Help in the organization (LOC) of the ESO workshop: “ALMA and the ELTs: a finer view of the
Universe”, Garching, Germany, March 2009
(http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/almaelt2009/)
• Help in the organization (LOC) of the Astrophysics School F. Lucchin, Tarquinia, Italy, June
2008 (http://www.oa-roma.inaf.it/meetings/tasca/)
Teaching experience
• Teacher Assistant at the Physics Laboratory of Rome University from 1999 to 2002
• Lectures held for the “Astrophysics Laboratory” class in 2005 & 2010 at Rome University
• Lectures held for the “Stellar Astrophysics” class in 2007 & 2008 at Rome University
• “Lectio Magistralis” on the E-ELT held at the Aosta Observatory (Italy) in March 2010
• Seminar on the E-ELT project held for the students of the Master in Science Communication
of the SISSA University, Trieste (Italy)
Supervision of master and graduate students
• 2007/2008 Two PhD students, L. Troisi, A. Di Cecco, Univ. Rome Tor Vergata – INAF
• 2012 Master in Physics student, Giovanni Strampelli, Univ. RomaeTor Vergata – INAF
• 2015 Grad student at the STScI, Giovanni Strampelli
Public outreach activities
• Expertise guide at the Rome Observatory (INAF) Astrophysics museum “ASTROLAB” from
2002 to 2008. I guided primary-, middle- and high-school kids, groups of adults or scientists,
in the tour of the Astrophysics museum. The museum is divided in four sections, one
dedicated to the solar system, one to star formation and stellar evolution, one to galaxies and
cosmology and one to observations with telescopes.
• Co-organizer in many public outreach activities at the Rome Observatory. In particular, I
helped in the definition of the program of the “Serata sotto le stelle” (“Night under the stars”)
and in its organization in the summers of 2004, 2005, 2006.
• Organization and participation to the 2007 European Research Night at the Rome
Observatory.
• Participation to the events related to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 in
collaboration with ESO and the Excellence Cluster in Munich, Germany.
• Organization of the public night “Un Mare di Stelle” (“A sea of stars”), with a conference about
the E-ELT project held by Dr. Roberto Gilmozzi, and sky observation with telescopes, in
Ischia (Italy), August 2011.
• Interview about the E-ELT project at the Web Radio Universita’ di Udine in January 2012
• Help in the organization of the Astronomy on Tap night in Baltimore in collaboration with the
Space Telescope Science Institute – AURA, March 2015.
• Participation to the Hubble hangout on my scientific press release, “Cosmic Dig in the Center of
Our Milky Way Galaxy”, November 2015.

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Public scientific writing and processing of astronomical images for the public
• Translation in Italian of the hexagonal ESO E-ELT flyer, “E-ELT, The European Extremely Large
Telescope. The World’s Biggest Eye on the Sky”, in 2010.
• Collaboration to the blog “An Eye on the Universe” at the Space Telescope Science Institute
• Article on the Pan European Network Ltd magazine, “Hubble and the bulge”, June 2014, Issue
11, page 48
• Hubble press release: “Hubble Uncovers Fading Cinders of Some of Our Galaxy’s Earliest
Homesteaders”, STScI-2015-38
• Production of some of the images published in the Hubble press release STScI-2015-38
Public talks and seminars
From 2010 to 2012, while being an OPTICON Young scientist at the Observatory of Rome, I was
officially in charge of maintaining the European community involvement and awareness of the
ESO E-ELT project, and in promoting the E-ELT throughout Europe and preparing the
community for its use. I was then invited to hold a series of public talks on the E-ELT project:
• Public Conference on the E-ELT project held at the Aosta Observatory (Italy) in 2009
• “Lectio Magistralis” on the E-ELT project and future telescopes and facilities held at the Aosta
Observatory (Italy) in March 2010
• Public Conference on the E-ELT project held at the 2011 European Research Night at the
Rome Observatory – INAF (Italy)
• Seminar on the E-ELT project held for the students of the Master in Science Communication
of the SISSA University, Trieste (Italy), in January 2012.
• Public Conference on the E-ELT held at the CNAI Workshop in Rome (Italy) in 2012
• Public Conference on the E-ELT held at a Film Festival in Tagliacozzo (Italy) in 2012
• Public Conferences on the E-ELT held at the 2012 European Research Night at the Padua
Observatory - INAF (Italy)
Research interests of Dr. Annalisa Calamida
The Galactic bulge
My study of the Galactic bulge is based on time-series observations collected with ACS and WFC3 on
board the Hubble Space Telescope. The main goal of the observations is to detect isolated stellar mass
black holes in the Galactic bulge and disk through gravitational microlensing. I reduced and calibrated all
the observations and I used this data set to characterize the Galactic bulge stellar populations through the
study of white dwarfs and horizontal branch stars, and to derive the initial mass function down to 0.15 M¤
.
- Microlensing to detect isolated stellar mass black holes
I analyzed time-series observations of the Galactic bulge collected with ACS and WFC3 for a project to
detect isolated stellar mass black holes through gravitational microlensing. There has never been an

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unambiguous detection of an isolated stellar mass black hole so far. The only technique available to detect
such isolated black holes is astrometric microlensing and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is the only
instrument currently capable of detecting such tiny deflections (~ 0.5 mas). Preliminary analysis
resulted in the detection of 16 events in the brightest 10-15% of our sample of monitored stars, consistent
with an expected total number of ~100 events in our full sample. We are now refining our astrometric and
photometric techniques in order to validate these results. These findings have important implications for the
future WFIRST microlensing surveys.
- Characterizing the Galactic bulge stellar populations
I am leading a project to characterize the Galactic bulge stellar populations through the study of different
evolutionary phases. The work is based on the same data set used for the microlensing project and on data
taken with ACS in 2004. Combining these observations I was able to estimate very accurate proper
motions, better than ~ 0.5 mas/yr for stars with V < 28 mag. Proper motions allowed me to separate
disk and bulge stars and to obtain the deepest color-magnitude diagram of the pure bulge component.
As a consequence I identified for the first time a clearly defined white dwarf (WD) cooling sequence in
the Galactic bulge (Calamida et al. 2014, ApJ, 790,164). The characterization of the WD population is an
effective method to understand the formation history of the bulge and the Galaxy itself, since most stars end
their life as WDs. The WD population of the bulge contains then important information on the early star
formation history of the Galaxy.
The ability to disentangle bulge and disk stars down to very faint magnitudes allowed me to determine
the initial mass function of the pure bulge component down to very low-masses, ~0.15 M¤
. The initial mass
function is a fundamental property of stellar populations, and hence a crucial input in any study of galaxy
formation and evolution. My analysis shows that the initial mass function of the bulge can be fitted with two
power laws with a break at M ~0.56 M¤
, the slope being steeper (α = -2.41±0.50) for the higher masses, and
shallower (α = -1.25±0.20) for the lower masses. The slope of the bulge mass function is similar to the
slope of the mass function of the Galactic disk in the high-mass regime, but the bulge mass function is
slightly steeper in the low-mass regime. This result may implicate differences in the star formation
processes in the bulge and in the disk (Calamida et al. 2015, ApJ, 810, 8).
The results discussed above are the subject of the Hubble press release STScI-2015-38.
- Variables and binaries:
I plan to use the same data set to identify and characterize thousands of new variables and binaries in the
Galactic bulge. By matching this data set with the 2004 ACS time-series data covering a one week baseline,
and with ground-based time-series observations collected by us with the VIMOS camera on the VLT (ESO),
with a cadence of 4 days and a baseline of two years (proposal 093.D-0522), we will have the optimal
observation cadence to detect both short- (such as RR Lyrae, Type II Cepheids, binaries, SX Phoenicis) and
long-period (binaries, Mira) variables. Preliminary results obtained by reducing part of the data sets, showed
that a photometric accuracy of ~2% is achieved at visual magnitudes V ~ 22 (VIMOS) and V ~ 24 (HST).
- Spectroscopy of Extreme Horizontal Branch stars
Extreme Horizontal Branch (EHB) stars are hot (T ≥ 30,000 K), core helium-burning stars with a very
thin hydrogen envelope. They are the main contributors to the ultraviolet-upturn in elliptical galaxies and in
bulges and so it is fundamental to characterize their properties and understand their origin. In the disk most
EHB stars are in close binary systems, in apparent contrast with the scarcity (≤ 25%) of close binaries in
clusters. I collected multi-epoch spectra of EHB stars identified in my study of the bulge with the multi-
object spectrograph GMOS on the Gemini-S telescope. I plan to measure radial velocities to detect binaries
among these objects. The true binary fraction of bulge EHB stars will reveal if they share a similar
origin as in the high-density, low-metallicity environments of globular clusters, in which stellar

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collisions and encounters play an important role, or if they are more similar to the field disk
population, where the binary scenario is favoured and stellar environment is similar to the bulge.
Pulsating extreme horizontal branch stars and variables in ω Cen
My study of ω Cen is based on spectroscopic and time-series observations collected with ESO and
NOAO facilities and COS on board HST. I started to work at this project when I was a postdoc at ESO and I had
the chance to include new astronomers in this collaboration while working at the Space Telescope
- Spectroscopy of Extreme Horizontal Branch stars
The formation of EHBs in globular clusters is currently a hotly debated topic. Two main competing
formation scenarios have been proposed: - the hot-helium flasher scenario, where EHBs originate from stars
which lost a significant amount of mass during the red-giant branch phase, possibly due to close binary
interactions and the helium-enhanced scenario, where the high temperatures of EHBs are attributed to a
greatly enhanced star initial helium abundance.
By using spectra collected with FLAMES and FORSes on the VLT (proposals 081.D-0139, 386.D-0669,
089.D-0413, 091.D-0791) we found that a large fraction of EHBs in ω Cen present simultaneous helium-
and carbon-enhancement, indicating that they might be late hot-helium flashers (Moehler et al. 2007, A&A,
475, L5; 2011, A&A, 526, A136; Latour et al. 2014, ApJ, 795, 106). This evidence suggests that the
helium-rich EHBs in ω Cen cannot be explained by only the helium-enhanced scenario invoked to explain
the multiple main sequences. A consensus on this topic is of great importance in the context of the
interpretation of the multiple populations observed in ω Cen and in many other globular clusters.
- Fast time-series observations
S. Randall and I discovered, based on time-series photometry with SUSI2 and EFOSC2 on the NTT ESO
telescope (proposal 091.D-0791), the first rapid EHB pulsators in ω Cen (Randall et al. 2009; A&A, 494,
1053; 2010, Ap&SS, 329, 55), thus opening up the exciting prospect of probing the interior of these stars
through asteroseismology. This technique allows to accurately estimate the total stellar mass and the
fractional mass of the thin Hydrogen-rich envelope that, together with precise spectroscopic measurements
of the surface abundances, can provide firm constraints on their evolutionary history. Spectra of the four
EHB pulsators showed that their temperatures cluster around 50,000 K, being significantly hotter than their
field counterparts (Randall et al. 2011 ApJ, 737, L27). The variables that we disclosed in ω Cen might
then belong to a new class of stellar pulsators, that can now be subjected to asteroseismological
scrutiny. To perform asteroseismology we collected fast time-series observations of ω Cen with
ULTRACAM on the NTT (proposal 087.D-0216). This data set allowed us to confirm the variability of the
previously identified candidate EHB pulsators, and led to the discovery of one other variable (Randall,
Calamida et al. 2016, ApJ, submitted). The same dataset will also allow us to detect different kind of short-
period variables in ω Cen.
More recently I collected fast time-series data of ω Cen with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the
4m-Blanco telescope (CTIO). Thanks to the large field of view of the camera (2°x2°) we will have light
curves for a complete sample of cluster EHB stars and variables. These will be used to uncover any new
rapid pulsators, to identify new short-period variables and characterize the properties of known variables at
high-frequency.
Future developments
- Galactic bulge: My study of the WD population of the bulge will greatly benefit from the advent of the
future observing facilities, such the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) and the James Webb
Space Telescope (JWST). These facilities will allow me to observe WDs in the near-infrared, something

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that is now barely feasible with HST and the 8m-class telescopes. The WD cooling sequence will then be
used to estimate the age of stellar populations in the Galactic bulge, to be compared with estimates obtained
with other diagnostics, such as the main sequence turn-off. This study will be fundamental to constrain the
presence of an age spread in the Galactic bulge, which is now a hotly debated topic. The advent of E-ELT
and JWST will also push the study of the bulge initial mass function down to the hydrogen burning limit
and will enable me to observe more obscured regions and the far side of the Galactic bulge.
- ω Cen: We observed two of the EHB pulsators with the ultraviolet spectrograph COS on the HST. The
analysis of these data will now allow us to derive more accurate temperatures for the pulsators and to better
constrain the EHB instability strip in the cluster. A few hundreds of the EHBs were also observed with
VIMOS on the VLT (proposal 093.D-0873), to measure radial velocities and detect variations to provide
reliable statistics on the close binary fraction of EHB stars in ω Cen. The hot-flasher scenario relies on
binary interactions, which is at odds with the extremely low number of binaries so far found in this cluster.
Our preliminary analysis of VIMOS spectra confirmed the very low binary fraction previously found, only 5
of 63 targets showing any sign of periodic radial velocity variations. However, the orbital parameters
derived from the VIMOS data are marginal, and we will soon collect more accurate data with FORS2 on the
VLT (proposal 097.D-0970) in order to confirm or refute the binary nature of the candidates as well as
reliably pin down orbital periods. Given that the search for bona fide EHB star binaries in globular clusters
has been on for decades, the confirmation of even one of these candidates as a close binary system would
open up a whole new avenue for both observers and theorists.