The Team

“The Planetary Science section of the Astronomy and Astrophysics research group belongs to the Instituto de Física Aplicada a las Ciencias y las Tecnologías (IUFAcyT) and to the Departamento de Física, Ingeniería de Sistemas y Teoría de la Señal (DFISTS), both at the University of Alicante”.

UA staff:

Adriano Campo Bagatin (Catedrático de Universidad)

Link to the personal information

 

Paula Gabriela Benavidez Lozano (Profesora Contratada Doctora)

I’m currently Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, Systems Engineering and Signal Theory (DFISTS). My research is focussed on modelling collisional evolution of small body populations and in the utilization of numerical simulations applied to the study of asteroid fragmentation and formation of asteroid families. Currently I’m involved in NEOMAP project and HERA mission.

  • Degree in Astronomy (2002) Universidad Nacional de San Juan (2002)
  • PhD by Universidad de Alicante (2008)
  • Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics, System Engineering and Signal Theory of the University of Alicante, since 2008.
  • Associate Professor at the Department of Physics, System Engineering and Signal Theory of the University of Alicante, since 2016.

Papers published:

Link to the 17 papers published

 

Postdoc researchers:

Toni Santana Ros (APOSTD. GV Researcher)

I am currently a post-doc for the Universidad de Alicante through grant APOSTD/2019/046 by Generalitat Valenciana. This grant allowed me to do an internship at the Gaia group of the Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB-IEEC) where I am developing a tool to analyze asteroid photometry gathered by this space telescope.

Past projects:

PhD (2016), GREAT-ITN (FP7 Marie Curie programme, 264895)
Physical models of single and binary asteroids from photometric surveys: preparation of Gaia data scientific exploitation
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland)

GAIA-GOSA (2016), ESA Contract No. 400011266014/NL/CBi
http://www.gaiagosa.eu

POST-DOC IN SBNAF (2016-2018) (H2020-COMPET-2015)
http://sbnaf.eu/

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY (2018-2019)
NEO Test and Validation Engineer at the Planetary Defense Office of the European Space Agency (ESA), in Darmstadt (Germany).

Other projects:

  • GAVIP-Grid Computing (ESA Contract No. 4000120180/17/NL/CBi)
  • HARISSA lightcurve coordinator (Very Large Telescope, 4×8.2m, ESO)
  • Gaia-DPAC CU9 member
  • Polish national representative for Gaia outreach.

Papers published:

 

Álvaro Álvarez Candal

I work with photometric and spectroscopic observations of minor bodies, especially TNOs, interested on their surface properties and what they can tell us about they origin and evolution of the Solar System.

  • Degree in Astronomy (2002) National University of Córdoba, Argentina
  • Ph.D. in Astronomy (2006) National Observatory of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • Post-doctoral fellow (2007-2008), European Space Agency / LESIA, Paris Observatory, France
  • Post-doctoral fellow (2009-2013), European Southern Observatory, Chile
  • Researcher (2013-) National Observatory of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (on unpaid leave)
  • Distinguished Doctor (2020-) IUFACyT, University of Alicante, Spain

 

Collaborators:

Manuel Pérez Molina (UA staff.Profesor Titular UA)

Manuel Pérez Molina was born in Alicante in 1982. He studied
Telecommunication Engineering at Miguel Hernández University and completed
his PhD Thesis on Electromagnetic Optics in 2009 (with extraordinary award)
at the same university. In 2008 he became Assistant Professor at the
Department of Physics, System Engineering and Signal Theory of the
University of Alicante, where he has been working as Associate Professor
since 2017. His areas of research include Dynamics and mathematical methods
in the Electromagnetic Theory as well as Bifurcation Theory and Chaos.

Papers published:

 

Rafael Andrés Alemañ Berenguer

  • Degree in Chemistry (Biochemistry), Univ. de Valencia, Spain
  • Degree in Physics (Fundamental), Univ. de Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)
  • Diploma de Estudios Avanzados (DEA) on Materials Science, Univ. Miguel Hernández de Elche (Alicante)
  • Doctor in Science and Physical Techniques,  Univ. de Alicante.

Papers published:

 

Ph.D. students:

Po-Yen Liu (NEO-MAPP Project)

Nair Trógolo

 

Visititing students:

Jacob Curry

 

Technical team:

Ismael Bertaïba Fernández

  • Degree in Multimedia Engineering (2018) Universidad de Alicante, España
  • Master’s Degree in Animation and 3D modeling with specialization in Visual Effects (VFX) (2019) Coco School, España

 

Visitors:

Prof. Gonzalo Tancredi (Universidad de la República. Montevideo, Uruguay)

Prof. Mario Melita (Universidad de LaPlata. Argentina)

Dr. Javier Licandro Gordaracena (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. La Laguna, TF,Spain)

Dr. Rene Duffard (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucia. Granda, Spain)

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Vincent (DLR. Germany)