A. Escorza

I am a European Southern Observatory (ESO) Postdoctoral Fellow based in Chile. My time is divided 50-50 between science and duties at ESO's Paranal observatory. In Paranal, I act as support astronomer 80 nights a year, and I operate two of the four VLT telescopes (UT1 and UT2) and their six instruments (ESPRESSO, FLAMES, FORS2, KMOS, UVES, and VISIR). Additionally, I am part of the Instrument Teams of UVES and ESPRESSO as Instrument Fellow. During my science time, my research focuses on evolved binary systems, particularly the post-interaction progeny of Asymptotic Giant Branch binaries. Most of my work concerns barium stars, a family of chemically peculiar stars that show an enhancement of typical-AGB elements in their atmospheres, indicating they received mass from such a companion. I focus on the stellar and orbital properties of these stars and their companions with the goal of better understanding their formation and evolution and learning about low- and intermediate-mass binaries in general.