Dr. Ximena Abrevaya is an Astrobiologist, and Senior Research Scientist (CONICET) at Instituto
de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (University of Buenos Aires – CONICET), Argentina. She is
the Founding Director of the Argentinian Research Unit in Astrobiology ‘Astrobio.ar’
(www.astrobioargentina.org). Abrevaya obtained her Licenciatura (equivalent to MSc.) and
Ph.D. degrees in Biological Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires and her doctoral
dissertation was the first thesis in Astrobiology in Argentina. Her expertise in Astrobiology
relies on interdisciplinary studies where she combines astrophysics, biology, and geology. Her
main research topics are related to stellar radiation as a constraint for habitability, for the
origin of life in planetary bodies of the Solar System, and for lithopanspermia, as well as
halophilic archaea, and radiotolerant microorganisms as models in astrobiology, hypersaline
environments as analogs of extraterrestrial environments, and methods for the in situ
detection of extraterrestrial life, among others. Since 2019, Abrevaya is invited scientist at the
Institute for Physics, University of Graz, Austria. She is the PI of several international projects
such as “The EXO-UV program”, working in collaboration with researchers from multiple
institutions in different countries such as Brazil, Austria, the UK, and Germany. Additionally,
she has been working in the communication of science for the public for more than 15 years.
In 2007 she received the National Award for Science Journalism, given by the Ministry of
Science and Technology from Argentina.