An international team of scientists led by the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (ICCUB-IEEC) have introduced REGALADE, an unprecedented all-sky catalog that brings together nearly 80 million galaxies. This achievement, now published in the prestigious journal Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A), marks a turning point for astronomy, enabling researchers to explore cosmic events with a level of precision never seen before.

When a telescope detects a sudden phenomenon such as a supernova or the merger of two black holes or neutron stars, astronomers need to know where to look and how far away the event occurred. That requires identifying the galaxy hosting the event. Until now, existing catalogs were incomplete beyond about 300 million light-years, leaving large gaps in our map of the nearby Universe. REGALADE fills those gaps by combining data from major surveys and cleaning it using data from the Gaia mission to remove stars mistakenly classified as galaxies. The result is a high-purity, high-completeness catalog that includes accurate distances and size measurements for all galaxies, and stellar masses for most. 

“REGALADE began as a user experience problem: astronomers relied on many popular catalogs, but each one covered only part of the sky or lacked key information,” explains Hugo Tranin, ICCUB researcher and lead author of the study. “By merging data from 14 widely used catalogs and deep imaging surveys, we now have a single, unified place to look for galaxy distances and properties. This drastically simplifies the daily work of astronomers and allows our team to retrieve distances for more than 75% of the transients reported worldwide every day.” The team has also released an interactive sky viewer (https://blackpearl.blackgem.org/regalade.php), where the public can explore the REGALADE catalog and navigate millions of galaxies in just a few clicks.

The scale and depth of REGALADE are extraordinary. It covers the entire sky and reaches out to more than four billion light-years, mapping about 10% of the volume of the observable Universe. This completeness means astronomers can now identify many more host galaxies for all types of cosmic events, from infrared to X-rays, and significantly improve strategies for gravitational-wave follow-up. According to Nadia Blagorodnova, ICCUB-IEEC researcher and co-author, “Observatories like the Vera Rubin Observatory will detect millions of cosmic events every night. REGALADE ensures we can identify their host galaxies quickly and accurately, enabling rapid classification of rare transients such as luminous red novae, stellar mergers that our team actively studies, and opening the door to the discovery of entirely new types of celestial phenomena.”

The study was led by Hugo Tranin, researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), with the participation of ICCUB-IEEC researchers Nadejda Blagorodnova, Marco A. Gómez-Muñoz and Maxime Wavasseur. Their work combines expertise in time-domain astronomy, galaxy surveys and multi-messenger astrophysics, positioning the ICCUB team at the forefront of efforts to build comprehensive resources for the next generation of observatories.

Reference: 

Tranin, H., Blagorodnova, N., Gómez‑Muñoz, M. A., Wavasseur, M., Groot, P. J., Landsberg, L., Stoppa, F., Bloemen, S., Vreeswijk, P. M., Pieterse, D. L. A., van Roestel, J., Scaringi, S., Faris, S.,et al. (2025). A catalog to unite them all: REGALADE, a revised galaxy compilation for the advanced detector era. [Article]. Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202556896

A new study led by researchers at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) offers fresh insights into how galaxies like our Milky Way form and evolve and why their stars show surprising chemical patterns.

Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the research explores the origins of a puzzling feature in the Milky Way: the presence of two distinct groups of stars with different chemical compositions, known as the “chemical bimodality.”

What is chemical bimodality?

When scientists study stars near the Sun, they find two main types based on their chemical makeup, specifically, the amounts of iron (Fe) and magnesium (Mg) they contain. These two groups form separate “sequences” in a chemical diagram, even though they overlap in metallicity (how rich they are in heavy elements like iron). This has long puzzled astronomers.

The new study uses advanced computer simulations (called the Auriga simulations) to recreate the formation of galaxies like the Milky Way in a virtual universe. By analyzing 30 simulated galaxies, the team looked for clues about how these chemical sequences form.

Understanding the chemical history of the Milky Way helps scientists piece together how our Galaxy, and others like it, came to be. This includes our sister galaxy, Andromeda, in which no bimodality has yet been detected. It also provides clues about the conditions in the early universe and the role of cosmic gas flows and galaxy mergers.

“This study shows that the Milky Way’s chemical structure is not a universal blueprint,” says lead author Matthew D. A. Orkney, researcher at ICCUB and the Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). “Galaxies can follow different paths to reach similar outcomes, and that diversity is key to understanding galaxy evolution.”

Key findings
 

The study reveals that galaxies like the Milky Way can develop two distinct chemical sequences through various mechanisms. In some cases, this bimodality arises from bursts of star formation followed by periods of little activity, while in others it results from changes in the inflow of gas from the galaxy’s surroundings. Contrary to previous assumptions, the collision with a smaller galaxy known as Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus (GSE) is not a necessary condition for this chemical pattern to emerge. Instead, the simulations show that metal-poor gas from the circumgalactic medium (CGM) plays a crucial role in forming the second sequence of stars. Moreover, the shape of these chemical sequences is closely linked to the galaxy’s star formation history.

As new telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and upcoming missions such as PLATO and Chronos provide more detailed data on stars and galaxies, researchers will be able to test these findings and refine our picture of the cosmos.

“This study predicts that other galaxies should exhibit a diversity of chemical sequences. This will soon be probed in the era of 30m telescopes where such studies in external galaxies will become routine. Ultimately, these will also help us further refine the physical evolutionary path of our own Milky Way,” adds Chervin Laporte (ICCUB-IEEC, CNRS-Observatoire de Paris and Kavli IPMU). 

Participating Institutions

This research has been led by researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and the CNRS with the collaboration of scientists from Liverpool John Moores University and the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik.

 

Reference:

Orkney, M. D. A., et al. (2025). The Milky Way in context: The formation of galactic discs and chemical sequences from a cosmological perspective. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1551

Of the many open questions that puzzle physicists today, there is one, most relevant to cosmologists that crystallises into a single number: the Hubble constant H0, which stands for the ratio between how far a cosmic object is from us and how fast it moves away from us due to the accelerating expansion of the Universe. The puzzle comes from the statistically significant discrepancy between the values of H0 obtained through different measurement strategies: the traditional method, based on the observation of cosmic objects such as Cepheid variable stars and supernovae, or a more indirect approach that uses the cosmic microwave background as the starting point for inferring H0. If this 'Hubble tension' is real, that is, if the differing values of H0 aren't caused by yet-to-be-found systematic uncertainties in the measurements, this calls for a profound rethinking of what we believe we know about the evolution and composition of the Universe.

In a paper just published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the TDCOSMO collaboration documents their latest effort in pursuing an alternative path to the precise measurement of the Hubble constant. The team’s results further support the Hubble tension between late- and early-Universe measurements of H0. “To me the lensing time delays is pivotal in the tension resolution as it is fully independent of any other method and as it does not involve complicated calibrations” says Frédéric Courbin, ICREA researcher at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC). 
 

The TDCOSMO collaboration uses a technique known as time-delay cosmography to infer the value of the Hubble constant. In the paper, the team applies this method to a sample of cosmic probes known as strongly lensed quasars. A quasar is a distant, extremely bright object produced by an accretion disk of gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. 
 

When a massive object, such as a galaxy, stands between an observer and a quasar, an effect known as gravitational lensing produces multiple images of the quasar. This is because the so-called lens galaxy, also referred to as the deflector, acts a bit like an optical lens placed on the path of a light beam: it warps space and, as a result, bends and magnifies the light coming from a background object. In the case of a quasar, the light's deflection produces bright, distorted lensed images around the lens galaxy (see header image in this article).
 

Crucially, the signature of gravitational lensing on an observed quasar is not just spatial, but temporal too. If the intensity of the radiation emitted by a quasar varies over time, the light rays coming from multiple images of one lensed quasar reach us with temporal delays. Time-delay cosmography allows researchers to measure what is known as time-delay distance. Provided the gravitational potential of the lens galaxy is sufficiently well known, scientists can infer H₀ from the time-delay distance and the light's redshift caused by the expanding Universe.

To obtain the new value of H₀, the TDCOSMO team used previously collected as well as new data on eight strongly lensed quasars and took advantage of improved analysis methods. For six out of eight lens galaxies, the data related to stellar kinematics were made accessible by the NIRSpec spectrograph on the James Webb Space Telescope. Stellar kinematics data refer to the motion of stars in a galaxy: they're especially important to address a major source of error when determining H₀ with time-delay cosmography. Other data were collected with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

The latest findings from the TDCOSMO collaboration underscore the critical role of international research networks and sustained investment in science. Thanks to the visionary support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), researchers were able to collect two decades of time-delay measurements of lensed quasars using the Swiss Leonhard Euler Telescope at ESO. This long-term effort was further strengthened by European funding through the ERC Advanced Grant COSMICLENS (PI: Frédéric Courbin).

Highlighting the significance of this research, the European Commission has recently awarded a €12 million Synergy Grant to tackle the Hubble tension through the RedH0T project, co-led by researchers Licia Verde (ICREA-ICCUB) and Frédéric Courbin.

Reference:

Birrer, S. et al. TDCOSMO 2025: Cosmological constraints from strong lensing time delays. Astronomy & Astrophysics.

https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555801

Available at https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202555801

Based on the press release from ETH Zurich.

An international team led by researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) has received a Synergy Grant from the European Research Council to resolve the Hubble tension, one of the major challenges in modern cosmology and a source of disagreement when measuring the expansion rate of the universe. The project, called RedH0T, will receive more than €12 million in funding (around €6 million allocated to the UB).

Licia Verde, ICREA researcher and Scientific Director of ICCUB, is the coordinator of RedH0T. This project’s principal investigators also include Frédéric Courbin, ICREA researcher at ICCUB and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC); Julien Lesgourques, from Aachen University (Germany) and Adam Riess, from Johns Hopkins University (United States), winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

“RedH0T aims to address one of the challenges that cosmology has faced for years: Is the significant discrepancy between measurements of the Hubble constant (H₀) caused by observational errors or limitations of the current cosmological model? If the latter is true, we would be facing one of the most significant discoveries of the 21^st century, with profound implications for fundamental physics,” says Licia Verde.

The researcher adds: “RedH0T is expected to improve on all current measures of H₀ with cross-checks and internal consistency, thereby producing robust results that can guide cosmologists in revising the current paradigm.”

The project also stands out for its innovative approach, which is pioneering in cosmology. RedH0T introduces the red-teaming method, inspired by cybersecurity. “In the field of cybersecurity, ethical hackers conduct simulated, non-destructive cyberattacks to test the effectiveness of systems. In our case, we want each methodology for measuring the Hubble constant to be analysed by three different teams, which allows each method to be validated or questioned with maximum transparency and rigour, promoting scientific consensus,” says Fred Courbin.

This collaborative work will be carried out by a blue team, made up of experts who will develop the methodology; a red team, composed of specialists who will challenge assumptions and look for vulnerabilities; and a white team, with neutral figures who will oversee the process.

International institutions in pursuit of an ambitious goal

In addition to the University of Barcelona (project coordinator), Aachen University and Johns Hopkins University, the Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, The Chancellor Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford and the University of Chicago are also participating in the project. The team from the UB’s Institute of Cosmos Sciences is completed by Raúl Jiménez-Tellado (ICREA-ICCUB) and Héctor Gil-Marín (ICCUB-IEEC).
 

RedH0T and the current cosmological model

Despite the remarkable success of the standard cosmological model over the last two decades, recent observations and distance measurements using a wide range of cosmological instruments suggest cracks in this scientifically accepted paradigm. Differences have appeared in the measurements of quantities (tensions) that the current cosmological model predicts to be equal. The most prominent tension concerns the Hubble parameter, which quantifies the expansion of the universe approximately 13 billion years after the Big Bang.

The goal of solving this cosmological challenge has been recognized with a Synergy Grant, a grant from the European Research Council that supports teams of two to four researchers to tackle research projects that require deep collaboration across different disciplines. In this call, 66 research groups have been recognized and will receive €684 million in funding.

Denario is a groundbreaking AI-powered tool poised to reshape the landscape of scientific research. Developed collaboratively by an international team of scientists from institutions such as the Flatiron Institute, Cambridge University, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), Denario harnesses the capabilities of large language models to support researchers across every stage of the scientific process. From the initial spark of a hypothesis to the final interpretation of results, Denario offers a dynamic and modular system designed to enhance productivity and creativity in science.

At ICCUB, researchers Raúl Jiménez Tellado (ICREA-ICCUB), Pedro Tarancón (ICCUB), and Licia Verde (ICREA-ICCUB) played pivotal roles in both the technical development and conceptual framing of Denario. Jiménez and Tarancón demonstrated the tool’s potential by applying it to solve intricate problems in mathematical physics—an area where traditional AI systems often falter. Their work showcased Denario’s ability to engage with high-level theoretical challenges, pushing the boundaries of what AI can contribute to fundamental science.

Meanwhile, Licia Verde focused on the ethical dimensions of AI-assisted research. She helped shape the principles guiding Denario’s use, particularly in relation to transparency, accountability, and the evolving norms of scientific publishing. Her contributions have been instrumental in ensuring that Denario not only accelerates research but also aligns with responsible and rigorous scientific standards.

Denario itself is structured as a multi-agent system, with each AI agent specialized in a distinct task. These agents collaborate to assist with idea generation, literature review, data analysis, coding, debugging, and even manuscript writing. The system is built using AG2 and LangGraph frameworks, with cmbagent serving as the backend for research analysis. Users can interact with Denario through a command-line interface or a graphical user interface (DenarioApp), making it accessible to both technical and non-technical users.

One of Denario’s most innovative features is its ability to generate complete research papers, including figures and LaTeX-formatted manuscripts tailored to specific journal styles. For example, users can specify the APS (Physical Review) format and receive a ready-to-submit draft. The tool also allows manual input at any stage, enabling researchers to refine ideas, methods, or results with their own expertise.

Despite its capabilities, Denario is not intended to replace scientists. Its creators emphasize that it functions as an assistant, not an autonomous researcher. Human oversight remains essential, especially given that only a fraction of Denario’s outputs currently yield novel insights, and some results may include fabricated data. The tool’s value lies in its ability to streamline workflows, surface unexplored ideas, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

The ICCUB team’s involvement underscores the institute’s commitment to advancing both the technological and ethical frontiers of AI in science. Their work with Denario exemplifies how artificial intelligence can be integrated into research in a way that respects the integrity and creativity of scientific inquiry.

For further details, you can explore the Simons Foundation article or visit the Denario GitHub repository.

An international team led by ICREA researcher Mark Gieles from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) has developed a groundbreaking model that reveals how extremely massive stars (EMSs) – more than 1,000 times the mass of the Sun - shaped the birth and early evolution of the Universe’s oldest star clusters.

Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the study shows how these short-lived stellar giants profoundly influenced the chemistry of globular clusters, some of the oldest and most enigmatic stellar systems in the cosmos.

Globular clusters: the ancient archives of the Universe

Globular clusters are dense, spherical groups of hundreds of thousands to millions of stars, found in nearly all galaxies including our Milky Way. Most of them are more than 10 billion years old, implying that they formed shortly after the Big Bang.

Their stars display puzzling chemical signatures - including unusual abundances of helium, nitrogen, oxygen, sodium, magnesium, and aluminum - that have defied explanation for decades. These “multiple populations” point to complex enrichment processes during cluster formation from extremely hot “polluters”.

A new model for cluster formation

The new study builds on the inertial-inflow model of massive star formation, extending it to the extreme environments of the early Universe. The researchers show that in the most massive clusters, turbulent gas naturally gives rise to extremely massive stars (EMSs) weighing between 1,000 and 10,000 solar masses. These accreting EMSs release powerful stellar winds rich in the products of hydrogen burning at high temperatures, which then mix with the surrounding pristine gas and forms the chemically distinct stars.

“Our model shows that just a few extremely massive stars can leave a lasting chemical fingerprint on an entire cluster,” says Mark Gieles. “It finally links the formation physics of globular clusters to the chemical signatures we observe today.”

Laura Ramirez Galeano and Corinne Charbonnel from the University of Geneva add: “It was already known that nuclear reactions in the centres of extremely massive stars could create the right abundance patterns. We now have a model that provides a natural path to form these stars in massive star clusters.”

This process unfolds rapidly - within 1 to 2 million years - before any supernovae explode, ensuring that the cluster’s gas remains free of supernova pollution.

A new window on the early Universe and black holes

The implications reach far beyond the Milky Way. The authors propose that the nitrogen-rich galaxies discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are likely dominated by EMS-rich globular clusters that formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly. “Extremely massive stars may have played a key role in shaping the first galaxies,” adds Paolo Padoan (Dartmouth College and ICCUB-IEEC). “Their luminosity and chemical yields naturally explains the nitrogen-enhanced proto-galaxies we’re now seeing in the early Universe with JWST.”

These colossal stars likely ended their lives collapsing into intermediate-mass black holes (more than 100 solar masses), which could possibly be found via gravitational-wave signals.

The research provides a unifying framework connecting star-formation physics, cluster evolution, and chemical enrichment. It suggests that EMSs were key engines of early galaxy formation, simultaneously enriching globular clusters and forming the first black holes.

Reference

Mark Gieles, Paolo Padoan, Corinne Charbonnel, Jorick S Vink, Laura Ramírez-Galeano, Globular cluster formation from inertial inflows: accreting extremely massive stars as the origin of abundance anomalies, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 544, Issue 1, November 2025, Pages 483–512, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1314

For the first time ever, scientists have observed the nonlinear stage of modulational instability (MI) in a quantum system made of two repulsive components. This breakthrough, which features contributions from ICCUB researcher Alejandro Romero-Ros, was published in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters.

The nonlinear stage of MI is a rare and complex wave phenomena caused by the exponential growth of perturbations which, until now, had only been seen in single-component systems with attractive interactions. In their experiment, the team created a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) (a state of matter where atoms behave like a single quantum entity) with two different hyperfine states of rubidium-87 atoms to show that, even in a purely repulsive environment, the nonlinear stage of MI can emerge and evolve into striking wave patterns.

Using a repulsive laser barrier to simulate a “dam-break” scenario, the researchers triggered the nonlinear stage of MI. This led to the formation of dispersive shock waves, which are localized high-oscillating ripples that appear when a wave breaks suddenly. In some cases, these waves collided and formed Peregrine solitons, rare and short-lived “rogue waves” that have applications across several disciplines.

The study also provides a general analytical framework for understanding how the nonlinear stage of MI expands in any two-component mixture, regardless of the ratio of particles, a tool that could be used in future research across many areas of physics.

“These results are relevant not just to quantum physics, but also to other nonlinear fields like fluid dynamics, optics, and plasma physics,” says Romero-Ros. “It’s a beautiful example of how atomic systems can serve as quantum simulators for much broader scientific questions.”

What makes this study especially powerful is its multidisciplinary approach: the experiments were conducted in a laboratory using ultracold atoms, mathematical models predicted how the waves would behave under different conditions and simulations, led by ICCUB researcher Alejandro Romero-Ros, helped bridge theory and experiment. His 1D simulations were crucial in identifying the right conditions to observe the nonlinear regime of MI, while 3D simulations confirmed the experimental results.

This work marks a major milestone in the study of nonlinear dynamics and quantum fluids and opens new avenues for exploring nonlinear wave behavior, with potential applications in quantum technologies, wave control, and even understanding natural phenomena like ocean rogue waves.

Reference:

Mossman, S., Mistakidis, S. I., Katsimiga, G. C., Romero-Ros, A., Biondini, G., Schmelcher, P., Engels, P., & Kevrekidis, P. G. Nonlinear Stage of Modulational Instability in Repulsive Two-Component Bose-Einstein Condensates. Physical Review Letters, 135(11), 113401 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1103/6jsr-f8q1

Researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) have developed a novel machine learning framework that significantly improves the ability to solve complex differential equations, especially in cases where traditional methods struggle. The work, led by Pedro Tarancón-Álvarez and Pablo Tejerina-Pérez, has been published in Communications Physics, a journal from the Nature Portfolio. 
 

Differential equations are essential tools in physics, used to describe phenomena ranging from fluid dynamics to general relativity. However, when these equations become "stiff" (meaning they involve vastly different scales or highly sensitive parameters), they become extremely difficult to solve. This is particularly true for inverse problems, where scientists aim to deduce unknown physical laws or parameters from observed data. 
 

To tackle this challenge, the researchers have enhanced the capabilities of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs), a type of artificial intelligence that incorporates physical laws into its learning process. Their approach combines two innovative techniques:
 

• Multi-Head (MH) Training: This allows the neural network to learn a general space of solutions for a family of equations, rather than just one specific case.
• Unimodular Regularization (UR): Inspired by concepts from differential geometry and general relativity, this technique stabilizes the learning process and improves the network’s ability to generalize to new, more difficult problems.
   

These methods were successfully applied to three increasingly complex systems: the flame equation, the Van der Pol oscillator, and the Einstein Field Equations in a holographic context. In the latter case, the researchers were able to recover unknown physical functions from synthetic data, a task previously considered nearly impossible. 
 

“Recent advances in machine learning training efficiency have made PINNs increasingly popular in the past few years,” explains Pedro Tarancón-Álvarez, PhD candidate at ICCUB. “This framework offers several novel features compared to traditional numerical methods, most notably the ability to solve inverse problems.”

“Solving these inverse problems is like trying to find the solution to a problem that is missing a piece; the correct piece will have a unique solution, incorrect ones may not have a solution, or multiple ones,” adds Pablo Tejerina-Pérez, PhD candidate at ICCUB. “One could try to invent the missing piece of the problem and then see if it can be solved properly – our PINNs do the same, but in a much smarter and efficient way than us.” 
 

The research was carried out in collaboration with Raul Jimenez (ICREA-ICCUB) and Pavlos Protopapas (Harvard University) and was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Maria de Maeztu Excellence Program. 
 

Reference:

Tarancón-Álvarez, P., Tejerina-Pérez, P., Jimenez, R. et al. Efficient PINNs via multi-head unimodular regularization of the solutions space. Commun Phys 8, 335 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-025-02248-1

Xavier Luri Carrascoso is now officially the new director of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC). Since September 1st, Luri has taken over from the previous director, Ignasi Ribas Canudas, who led the Institute from 2017 to 2025.

 Xavier Luri (Ribes de Freser, Girona, 1966) holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Barcelona, where he has been a professor in the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics since 2021. In addition to his teaching career, which began in the early 1990s, Luri has built a solid research career at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB), one of the research units that make up the IEEC.

Since 2023, he has been a member of the European Space Sciences Committee, an institution that provides independent scientific advice on space science to entities such as the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). His scientific activity is closely tied to ESA, as it mainly focuses on the Gaia mission, an astrometric satellite built by ESA with ICCUB and IEEC participation, designed to create the largest and most precise 3D map of our galaxy by observing over a billion stars.

Luri was one of the original proponents of the Gaia mission for its approval by ESA in 2001 and was a member of its scientific advisory group, the Gaia Science Team (2001–2007). Since 2014, he has played a key role in Spain’s contribution to the project, participating in research and development related to supercomputing, data processing, software development, and the calibration of luminosity, kinematics, and galactic dynamics.

Luri also has extensive experience in innovation and knowledge transfer. During the development phase of the Gaia mission, he participated in ESA development contracts that led to a patent for a data compression system and the creation of the spin-off company DAPCOM, of which he is a founder.

In addition to his research and innovation work, Luri has shown a strong commitment to science outreach, actively working to bring space science closer to society. Throughout his career, he has participated in numerous activities such as talks, workshops, and astronomical observations, and has led successful outreach projects like co-founding the Big Van Ciencia association.

In this new phase as director of the IEEC, Xavier Luri will lead the Institute’s strategy to continue positioning it as a reference institution in scientific research, technological development and innovation, and in promoting the space sector in Catalonia. The IEEC plays a key role in the implementation of Catalonia’s NewSpace Strategy, driven by the Government of the Generalitat.

“It is an honor to have been chosen as the new director of the IEEC”, says Xavier Luri, as he thanks Ignasi Ribas for the work that has turned the Institute “into the great center that it currently is.” Luri’s goal will be to continue strengthening the role of the IEEC as a reference center in space research and industry in Catalonia, while opening it up to new challenges through its constituent units.

Heartfelt thanks from ICCUB

From the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona, we wish to express our deepest gratitude to Dr. Xavier Luri Carrascoso for his dedication, commitment, and leadership over the years as director of our institute.

His vision, drive, and teamwork have been fundamental in growing ICCUB and consolidating it as a national and international research leader. It has been a privilege to walk alongside him, learning from his generous and inspiring approach.

As he begins this new chapter as director of the IEEC, we wish him every success and happiness in this new challenge. We are confident he will continue to leave a lasting mark, as he has with us, and will keep contributing with passion and excellence to the world of space science.