Beatriz Barbuy

When Barbuy tried to write a thesis in astrophysics at the time of the Brazilian military government, it was not possible to do it in Brazil: classmates and faculty at the University of São Paulo were being imprisoned or disappeared.[3]

In 1978, she moved to France and did her research in Roger Cayrel's group at the Paris Observatory. She focused her studies on the major elements carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in stars with ages between zero and 12 billion years, in research which allowed reconstruction of the evolution of the quantities of these elements since the formation of the galaxy to the present day.

Between 2001 and 2005, she played an important role in the international program on the formation of the first stars, led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). This program obtained detailed information about the chemical composition of stars formed more than 10 billion years ago.[3] She was elected president of the stellar division of the International Astronomical Union, and as vice president of that organization.[4]

In 2005 she was awarded the title of Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences.[5]

In 2009, she was one of five winners of the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science, awarded for her work in physics on 5 March at a ceremony at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.[2][6] She subsequently returned to Brazil to take up the post of professor at the University of São Paulo.[3]

• David Burstein; Yong Li; Kenneth C. Freeman; John E. Norris; Michael S. Bessell; Joss Bland-Hawthorn; Brad K. Gibson; Michael A. Beasley; Hyun-Chul Lee; Beatriz Barbuy; et al. (2004). "Globular Cluster and Galaxy Formation: M31, the Milky Way, and Implications for Globular Cluster Systems of Spiral Galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal. 614: 158–166. arXiv:astro-ph/0406564. Bibcode:2004ApJ...614..158B. doi:10.1086/423334.