A  huge search operation is underway on the Greek island of Ikaria following the mysterious disappearance of a  British London born woman of Cypriot origin who works in Nicosia.

Dr Natalie Christopher, 34,  went to the region of Kerame on August 3 with her Cypriot partner. The couple was scheduled to leave for Cyprus via Athens on Monday according to In Cyprus.

On Monday morning, when the man woke up, he tried to call his partner, who told him she was going for a run but had not returned yet.

But the man could not reach the woman after that and at 12.40 he filed a missing persons report.

Her cell phone was sending out a signal from the same area at first, but later appeared to have been switched off.

A large police operation is underway to locate the missing woman. Helicopters and fire fighters are also assisting the authorities in the search.

Additional aid is expected to come later today from neighbouring islands and from Attica, according to SKAI.

Appeals for help have been posted online with a photograph of the missing woman.

Natalie Christopher is a professional Astrophysicist, conducting research at the European University Cyprus, in the Astrophysics and High Performance Computing group. She works to develop our understanding on the evolution of galaxies, by fitting models to data collected from telescopes and satellites. This carries on from the work she carried out at the University of Oxford as part of her PhD, which addressed high velocity outflows from Active Galactic Nuclei, a phenomenon which occurs when material comes close enough to a supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy and “feeds” it.

Natalie loves communicating the science of Astronomy and her knowledge of the universe to the public. She recently represented Cyprus at the International Science Communication Competition, FameLab.

Natalie is regularly involved in Astronomy outreach, visiting schools across Cyprus to speak about the wonders of the cosmos. Natalie would love to start formally teaching Astronomy in Cyprus, which she hopes will encourage young people to consider a career in STEM. As an active sportswoman, Natalie also strives to lessen the gender disparity that exists in sports participation in Cyprus. She launched the Cyprus Girls Can campaign to get women and girls, of all ages and abilities all across Cyprus, more involved in sport.

This is Natalie speaking in a video below.

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