The ceremony took place last Tuesday, June 8, in the Palau de la Generalitat and it was chaired by the President of the Comunitat Valenciana Ximo Puig.

Licia Verde joined the ICCUB as an ICREA researcher on 2009. She has carried her research in several fields in all of which she has become a key referent: from theoretical Cosmology and Cosmic Microwave radiation to Large Scale Structure, Galaxy Clusters or Statistical Applications to precision Cosmology. Throughout her career, she has been involved in the main cosmology projects such as 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dFGRS), Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).

She stands on a long list of awards and distinctions: the Gruber Prize for Cosmology (2012), the Group Achievement NASA award (for her contribution on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe space mission, the National Research Award of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2018) and the Narcís Monturiol Medal (2019), all of which are a testimony to her scientific career.

You can learn more about her research in the piece: «Licia Verde: una carrera reconeguda en cosmologia de precisió»

The master's degree in Quantum Science and Technologies, coordinated by the University of Barcelona, is the result of common effort of the University of Barcelona, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, the Institute of Photonic Sciences, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, the Institute of High Energy Physics and the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. It arises in parallel to the establishment of the emerging community in Quantum Technologies, QuantumCat.

The program is aimed at graduates in Physics, Physical Engineering or equivalent degrees who want to continue specialization studies in Quantum Science and Technologies and its fundamental objectives are on the one hand to provide a solid education in theoretical physics and quantum information theory and to offer a variety of elective subjects to form a forward-looking study plan oriented to the development of quantum science and technology.

The program is taught by 30+ expert professors, and covers the core concepts of quantum science and technology, as well as practical tools and techniques.
The master gives access to cutting-edge theoretical and experimental research in the fields of quantum sensing, communication, computing and simulation.

Direct connections to industry through the QuantumCAT community, and the participation of high-tech companies in the teaching program and an annual careers symposium, will facilitate the future integration of students in both academic and industrial sectors.

Prof Bruno Julia, member of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences and coordinator of the Master in the Quantum Science and Technology program notes, “Quantum physics will play a major role in the next future developments in our capacity to compute, communicate, and measure with precision. A solid education in Quantum sciences will be a crucial asset to both push the boundaries of our knowledge and also to develop new industrial products profiting from the intricate quantum properties. This master is the seed for a quantum future.”

Prof. Morgan Mitchell, Coordinator QuantumCAT, the Quantum Technologies Hub of Catalonia, adds, “Quantum technology is growing rapidly in Catalonia, with universities, research centres, startup companies and established industrials all working to bring about the second quantum revolution. QuantumCAT, strongly supports the creation of the Master in QST, as a way to boost the skilled workforce in this dynamic industry. We look forward to working with MQST students and graduates.”

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Read the full article at Astronomy & Astrophysics

The thesis "Radiación no térmica asociada a estrellas de gran massa", defended by Dr. Santiago del Palacio in 2018 under the direction of the researcher of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences, Prof. Valentí Bosch-Ramón, has been selected by the jury appointed by the Associació Argentina de Astronomía, the organizing body.

The Carlos M. Varsavsky Prize for the best doctoral thesis has a biennial character and has been awarded since 2006. Its aim is to promote and recognize scientific research and academic activity in Argentine astronomy and astrophysics.

The jury highlights the impact that the thesis has had in its area of ??research with the publication of articles in international journals and scientific meetings. In the thesis of Dr. del Palacio is investigated the nonthermal emission produced in systems with stars of great mass. The aim is to understand the acceleration efficiency of cosmic rays in these systems, under what conditions they are capable of being non-thermal emitters and what are the characteristics of their magnetic fields, managing to combine the observation and theory behind the issuance of these objects.

You will also find all the details about our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee, and the ICCUB's Technological Unit.

Here you can read or download all the ICCUB's annual reports, ordered from the newest to the oldest.

ICCUB researcher Marc Ribó, professor of the Quantum Physics and Astrophysics Department of the University of Barcelona and member of the Institute of Spatial Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), has been elected as the new director of the Observatori Astronòmic del Montsec. After being the Observatory’s scientific director since 2017, Ribó will now occupy the director’s position for the next two years. He is also a member of the IEEC’s managing team.

Ribó obtained his PhD in High Energy Astrophysics in 2002 at the University of Barcelona. Afterwards, he moved to France as a postdoctoral researcher at the CEA-Saclay for three years, and then returned to the University of Barcelona through a Juan de la Cierva contract, which in 2008 was replaced by a Ramon y Cajal contract.In 2012, Ribó became an interim associate professor of the University, and since 2014 he has been a Serra-Húnter associate professor. He teaches and coordinates several graduate and master courses, and is a member of the coordinating committee of the Master in Astrophysics, Particle Physics and Cosmology. He has directed three doctoral theses and published more than 350 scientific articles, some of them in the Nature and Science journals.

Marc Ribó researches about the high energy astrophysics sources, mainly those of galactic origins. In particular, he has studied X-ray and gamma ray binary systems, that contain black holes and neutron stars, and show emissions across all the electromagnetic spectrum, from the radio waves to high-energy gamma-rays. He participated in remarkable discoveries such as the first gamma-ray-emitting microquasar, and the finding of the first Be-typestar with a black hole companion.

Ribó is a member of the international collaborations of MAGIC, where he is the Deputy Physics Coordinator, and CTA,where he is responsible of the technological unit. He has also collaborated with several international research centres.

The discovery of other lives far from the planet Earth would be a total scientific and intellectual revolution in our perception of nature and the Universe. “Life could have taken place in other places and times, but what we know about is that it took place and evolved here, in our planet Earth”, notes the emeritus professor of the UB Ricard Guerrero, in the prologue of the book. “And it did so because there was cooperation between the first inhabitants, instead of competition”, he adds.

With a multidisciplinary perspective, the book highlights the values of the astrobiogeology as a meeting point for several disciplines that take part in the debate on accepted paradigms and the most speculative speech. “It is a research field with an enormous growth. It is obvious that its development depends on technology and investments that only a few entities and countries can make, and which usually make consortiums to optimize resources”, says Andrea Butturini, lecturer at the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the UB.

“The most crucial aspect of astrobiogeology –he continues–, is that it feeds from the interaction between physics, chemistry, geology and biology, a mix that is promoting the development of scientific works in which many researchers are involved, not necessarily linked to the research institutes in Space Sciences. This scientific literature has a speculative component –which is very attractive from an academic and didactic perspective–, which would be great to introduce in the university studies and promote the union of all these disciplines”.


Are we alone in the Universe?: a revolution in how we see the Universe

According to Ignasi Ribas, director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), “setting the context in which the life takes place in the Universe represents one of the biggest challenges of science for the next decades. In order to reach this objective, it is essential to have a multidisciplinlary approach since the many intervening factors cover knowledge areas that are traditionally separated from each other”. The researcher also notes that “this approach combining astrophysics, biology, and geology –all them to the extreme–, will have to allow us to respond to one of the big questions, not only in science but in humanity: are we alone in the Universe? The transcendence of its answer will involve a new revolution”.

Through this journey along the human knowledge in the Cosmos, “we look for the signals of life existence left by an exoplanet in its atmosphere. In order to find the chemical composition and thermal structure of the atmospheres we use the spectroscopy, and we take measurements in the moment when the planet passes in front of the star”, notes Professor Carme Jordi.

“The study of the exoplanet atmospheres is one of the scientific objectives of the future space telescope from the NASA and the European Space Agency, James Web, using infrared-spectroscopy. The next ESA ARIEL mission is the first to be exclusively dedicated to the same aim, and covering a wide range of exoplanets, in this case to be studied with optical ear infrared-spectroscopy”, adds Carme Jordi, also member of ICCUB, IEEC and the scientific team of the ESA Gaia Mission.

Geology of the Earth and exoplanets

In order to study and model the geological processes beyond the Earth “we apply what we learnt about our planet”, notes the expert Daniel García Castellanos, member of ICTJA-CSIC. The in situ exploration of other worlds and the proliferation of discoveries of planets outside our Solar System are a great chance to contrast what we think we know about the Earth, the processes that also take place there and the frequency as well. Also, the modelling or simulation of these processes allow us to make a better prediction of the situations a potential mission or planet or moon in the solar system -could face.

The erosion caused by the liquid water was essential in regulating the terrestrial climate so there could be life. “Does this mean there cannot be life without a water cycle similar to ours? We also know that the terrestrial magnetic field stopped the volatile loss of our atmosphere, including water. Could we predict, with what we learnt about the Earth, whether a faraway exoplanet has its well-developed magnetic field, before visiting it?”

Living matter: behind the hints of extreme life in the Cosmos

The study of microorganisms that live in extreme environments changed the way of considering the possibility of life presence in other places in space. The books sheds light on the research of life in Cosmos and it offers alternative situations on the potential alien biospheres.

“It has been found that life is tenacious and that it appears wherever it is possible in our planet, even in places where, due to the apparently inhospitable conditions, it seemed impossible. This led us to think there could be many extra-terrestrial environments where life could have taken place”, notes Jordi Urmeneta, lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Instiute (IRBio) of the UB.

As a direct invitation to speculative thinking, the book leaves room for doubt in a context in which the object of study in astrobiogeology -alien life- is absent. “Perhaps the day we detect its existence, astrobiogeologu will step into a more orthodox phase, and the speculative side will lose its relevance”, note the authors.

Our former PhD student José Luis Bernal wins the XVI Prize for the Spanish Doctoral Thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics with his work "Cosmology on the Edge of the Λ-Cold Dark Matter”.

The Spanish Astronomy Society (SEA for its initials in Spanish) has just awarded the “SEA Thesis Award 2020” to our former PhD student José Luis Bernal, who has been selected as the winner over other 15 contestants. This award, for theses read in 2019, aims to distinguish the doctoral theses that potentially have a greater impact inthe field of astronomy, evaluating its contribution to the current state of knowledge. The Board of Directors has highlighted the high level of the 16 theses presented in this call.

Supervised by the cosmologist Licia Verde, José Luis Bernal defended his thesis last September, 13^th, and is currently doing a postdoctoral stay in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University (JHU,Baltimore, United States).

His research is focused in Cosmology. In particular, he researches about the use of different approaches to understand the nature of the early Universe, the dark matter and dark energy. These problems are approached both from a theoretical point of view and by analyzing observational data with new statistical techniques. In addition to his work on stress in determining the Hubble constant, he is also interested in large-scale observations of the Universe, mapped using line intensities, and in galaxy surveys.