Dr Sotiria Fotopoulou has joined the School of Physics as a University of Bristol Vice Chancellor's fellow. Sotiria works in the field of data-intensive astrophysics, specialising in the study of the co-evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN), their host galaxies and the larger-scale cosmic structures in which they are embedded.

 During her four-year fellowship, Sotiria will develop D.I.AN.A, a trailblazing framework to exploit large astronomical datasets, centred on the European Space Agency's Euclid project. D.I.AN.A. consists of three key components. First is automated multi-wavelength data fusion to bring together complementary information for large disparate databases. Secondly, machine-learning techniques will be used to identify AGN in these massive datasets.

Finally, Bayesian probabilistic modelling will be used to assess the impact of AGN on the evolution of their host galaxies (and vice-versa), and to understand the physical processes that drive and regulate the feedback between AGN, galaxies and their environment.

  Traditional datasets of AGN are known to be biased according to the selection method (e.g. by their X-rays, radio, optical, or infrared emission). The major advance of the D.I.AN.A framework will be achieved through a holistic approach encompassing the entire galaxy population, assigning a probability for each galaxy to host an AGN. By exploiting large datasets, this novel methodology will address the coevolution of AGN and their host galaxies as a function of cosmic time and large scale environment.