Haha

CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: Place and Date of Birth: Nationality: Marital Status: Permanent Address: Alejandra Melfo. Montevideo, Uruguay, 26/02/65 Uruguayan (by birth) and Venezuelan. Single. Facultad de Ciencias ULA, La Hechicera, M´rida 5101A, Venezuela. e

Education
• (1993 -1997) International School for Advanced Studies, SISSA-ISAS, Trieste, Italy Ph. D. in Astrophysics • (1992- 1993)International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy Diploma Course in High Energy Physics. • (1991 - 1994) Universidad de Los Andes, M´rida, Venezuela e M. Sc. in Astrophysics. • (1983 - 1989) Universidad de Los Andes, M´rida, Venezuela e Licenciado en F´ ısica .

Present Position
Since October 1993, working at the Physics Department, Universidad de Los Andes, M´rida. Hired under the program“Plan II de Formaci´n de Personal e o e Intercambio Cient´ ıfico del CDCHT-ULA”, through open exam ( ”concurso”). From August 1996, Assistant professor. Became Associate professor in July 2002. Director of “Centro de F´ ısica Fundamental” , Physics Department, Universidad de Los Andes, since February 2004. Member of the Physics Department Council since July 2003. Professor at the PhD program“Posgrado en F´ ısica Fundamental”, Universidad de Los Andes.

Academic awards and other achievements
• National Science Award Premio de la Fundaci´n Empresas Polar “Lorenzo o Mendoza Fleury”, XIII edici´n, 2007. o

1

• “Lisandro Alvarado” award to the “Best scientific paper in basic sciences” 2003, Universidad Centrooccidental Lisandro Alvarado, Barquisimeto, Venezuela, for the paper “ Selfgravitating domain walls and the thin-wall limit”, in collaboration with Nelson Pantoja and Rommel Guerrero. • Since 1994, member of the “Sistema de Promoci´n al Investigador” (SPI), o of CONICIT. Level II Researcher since 2001. The SPI Programme is a government-sponsored system that classifies Venezuelan researchers in a five-level system according to their scientific achievements, from Level 0 to LevelIV (maximum). • Received the “Programa de Est´ ımulo al Investigador (PEI)” award of Universidad de Los Andes 5 times since 1995. These awards are destined to ULA research personnel. • Since January 2000, Junior Associate Member of the “Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics”(ICTP), Trieste. • Fellowships received: – SISSA Fellowship for PhD students – ICTP Fellowship forDiploma Students – FONACIT Fellowship during sabbatical leave from ULA, 2002-2003. During the sabbatical leave, worked at ICTP High Energy Physics group. – “Plan 2 Fellowship” form Universidad de Los Andes, during M.Sc. studies. – Teaching assistanship during B.Sc. studies at Universidad de Los Andes

Thesis
1. Ph.D. Thesis entitled “Broken Symmetries at high Temperatures”. Abstract: Theories withspontaneous symmetry breaking achieved through the vacuum expectation value of more than one field provide the possibility of avoiding symmetry restoration at high temperature. This mechanism provides a way out of the topological defects problems. Theories with discrete symmetries such as spontaneously broken P, CP and Peccei-Quinn symmetries are studied and it is shown that the domain wall formationcan be avoided. Grand unified SU(5) theory is studied as an example of a gauge symmetry than can avoid restoration at high temperature, thus eliminating the monopole problem. It is shown that this can happen in minimal SU(5). Symmetry restoration in supersymmetric theories is also studied. 2

2. M.Sc. Thesis entitled “Slowly rotating spheres in general relativity” Abstract: A general setup forstudying axisymmetric fluids in general relativity representing a slowly rotating object is established, based on a seminumerical approach. 3. Diploma Course Thesis entitled “Inflationary cosmology”.

Publications:
1. R. Guerrero, A. Melfo, N. Pantoja and R. O. Rodriguez, “Close to the edge: Hierarchy in a double braneworld,” Phys. Rev. D 74 (2006) 084025 [arXiv:hep-th/0605160]. 2. A. Melfo,...