In 2011 Elena D'Onghia, PhD presented a SftPublic lecture on The Tumultuous Milky Way and Its Satellite Galaxies at Boston University. At that time, she was a Keck Fellow at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. At the Center for Astrophysics her research was focused on galaxy evolution and dynamics, as well as dark matter in galaxies. In 2012 Dr. D'Onghia joined the faculty of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin.

Dr. D'Onghia received her doctorate from the University of Milan in Italy, where her research was concerned with dark matter at the center of galaxies. After she received her PhD she was a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Zurich, and a Research Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute in Munich. She has received a number of awards and honors.