Gioia Rau — currently on IPA assignment as a Program Director in the Division of Astrophysical Sciences at the National Science Foundations — is a Program Scientist at Schmidt Sciences. In this role, Gioia co-leads the Virtual Institute of Astrophysics (VIA) and shares responsibilities for creating, managing, and supporting programs in the Scientific Knowledge portfolio, promoting multi-disciplinary research programs, cutting-edge technologies, and exceptional people to advance the most pressing issues of our time at the forefront of science.

Gioia is an Astrophysicist with more than 10 years of experience. Previous to joining Schmidt Sciences, Gioia was a Research Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where she worked on investigating a broad range of astrophysical topics including exoplanets and stellar astrophysics using artificial intelligence techniques, the most advanced computational models, and data that she obtained from the largest telescopes on Earth and in Space such as, among others, HST, TESS, Keck, VLTI, ALMA, and CHARA. Gioia has a track record of publications in the most high-impact astronomical journals and a multitude of grants won as scientific leader of NASA mission concepts in development, international collaborations, and student supervisor. She has been elected Chair of the Working Group on Red Giants and Red Supergiants, part of the prestigious International Astronomical Union, and faculty Research Assistant Professor at CUA. Gioia’s work is recognized by numerous awards, including most recently from the Astrophysics Division of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for her excellence in astrophysics and from the Italian Cultural Society’s Young Scientist Award. Dr. Rau is passionate about fostering and promoting IDEA (Inclusion Diversity Equity and Accessibility) values, especially by supporting women and other underrepresented minorities in pursuing scientific careers, and by making her scientific knowledge accessible to the public by being invited speaker at numerous outreach events.

Gioia holds a Ph.D in Astrophysics Summa Cum Laude from the University of Vienna, a Master in Astrophysics Summa Cum Laude and a B.A in Physics & Astrophysics from La Sapienza University of Rome.