About me: I am an Associate Astronomer at the Headquarters of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching bei München, Germany.
I work as User Support Astronomer (see USD website). I support users working with the VLT X-Shooter, SPHERE, MUSE, and CRIRES instruments, and participate in the quest to bring into operations NTT/SOXS and VLT/CUBES. I am also the project scientist at ESO for TIPTOP. 

Research topic: star and planet formation, in particular evolution of protoplanetary disks and its impact on planet formation (see review Manara et al. 2023, PPVII). 

• disk-star interaction through accretion of matter and winds (see my PhD Thesis) with UV to optical and near-infrared spectra (e.g. VLT/X-Shooter, VLT/UVES, VLT/MUSE, VLT/KMOS, or even HST spectra) 

• global disk properties from ALMA to test disk evolution mechanisms (Manara et al. 2023, PPVII)

• impact of the environment on disk evolution studied with ALMA (e.g., multiple systems) or VLT/MUSE (proplyds)

I am the PI of the ERC Starting Grant project WANDA, awarded in 2021, and running from May 2022 for 5 years (and 8 months) until December 2027. You can find more details on the WANDA website. 

To read more about my research, visit the following links to my research highlights and my publications (ADS+ link). I am on Twitter (@cfmanara). 

If you want to read more, check also the EPJ+ Focus Point on Environmental and Multiplicity Effects on Planet Formation I am editing with G. Lodato: EPJ+ Focus Point

Main on-going project: I am PI of the ESO Large Programme PENELLOPE (see Talk at CS20.5), aiming at complementing with VLT/ESPRESSO - UVES - X-Shooter spectra the HST Director Discretionary Programme ULLYSES. 

Current group members:

• Mari-Liis Aru, ESO WANDA ERC PhD student 2022-2025, September 2022 - December 2025, PhD Thesis submitted; Aru et al. 2024a, 2024b

• Matthew Birney, ESO WANDA ERC postdoc, since September 2025

• Karina Mauco, ESO WANDA ERC postdoc, December 2022 - November 2025; KM, CFM et al. 2023, Mauco et al. 2025 - soon Tenure-Track Professor at UNAM-Ensenada (Mexico)

• Hala Alqubelat, ESO WANDA ERC PhD student 2023-2026, started in May 2023

• Aaron Empey, ESO visiting student 2025, currently PhD student at UCD, Ireland

Previous directly supervised students and post-doc:

• Justyn Campbell-White, ESO WANDA ERC postdoc, August 2022 - July 2025; JCW, CFM et al. 2023 + JCW, CFM et al. 2023b

• Rik Claes, ESO IMPRS student 2021-2024,  PhD defended in February 2025; Claes, Manara et al. 2022, Claes et al. 2024 - currently Business Development Representative at Okta

• Victor Almendros-Abad, ESO visiting student 2022 (Almendros-Abad, Manara et al. 2024) - currently postdoc at INAF Palermo

• Jessica Erkal, ESO Studentship 2020-2021 (Erkal, Manara et al. 2022) - currently postdoc at IfA Honolulu

• Alessia A. Rota, ESO Master Student 2020 (Rota, Manara et al. 2022);  UniMI Bachelor Student (Manara et al. 2019) -  currently PhD  student at Uni Leiden;

• Giulio Bettoni, ESO Master Student 2021 (Mauco et al. 2023) - currently Data Specialist at Cuebiq.

• Anirudh Ravishankar, ESO Summer Student 2021

• Gabriella Zsidi, ESO Studentship 2019-2020 (Zsidi, Manara et al. in 2021), currently postdoc at Hertfortshire University, UK.

• Eleonora Fiorellino, ESO Studentship 2019-2020 (Fiorellino, Manara et al. 2021), currently researcher at University of Bologna.

• Francesco Zagaria, ESO Summer Student 2019 (Zagaria et al. 2023), currently Humboldt Fellow at MPIA Heidelberg.

• Irene Haasnoot, Master Student at Uni. Leiden 2017

• Jordan Voirin, Trainee at ESA/ESTEC; Voirin, Manara, Prusti 2018

• Maria Vincenzi, LEAPS Summer Student 2015, currently Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College.

I also like to organize conferences and workshops, as shown here.