Ramon Miquel

Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE)

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born in 1962 in Gelida (Barcelona). Graduated in physics in 1985 at Universitat de Barcelona (UB). PhD in experimental high-energy physics in 1989 at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Post-doctoral stay at CERN, Geneva (Switzerland) from 1991 to 1996, mostly working on the ALEPH experiment at the LEP accelerator. "Professor Titular" at UB 1997-2000. Moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley (USA) as a Career Staff Scientist in 2001, where started a transition towards observational cosmology. Since 2006, ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE). Associate Director of IFAE from 2008 to 2014. Director since 2015. Working mostly on the "Dark Energy Survey" (DES), "Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument" (DESI), and IFAE-led "Physics of the Accelerated Universe" (PAU) projects. All of them try to shed light into the nature of the "dark energy" that is causing the current acceleration of the expansion of the Universe.


Research interests

I am an experimental particle physicist trying to understand the ultimate building blocks of the Universe and their interactions, through both experiments involving particle accelerators and astronomical observations. Recently, my work has been mostly devoted to planning instruments  and performing observations to try to unveil the nature of the so-called “dark-energy” component of the Universe, which accounts for about 70% of the matter-energy of the Universe, counters the attractive effect of gravity on all other forms of matter and energy, and drives the current accelerated expansion of the Universe.

Selected publications

– Jarvis M et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016. ‘The DES Science Verification Weak Lensing Shear Catalogues’, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 460, 2245

– Becker MR et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Cosmic shear measurements with Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data’, Phys. Rev. D 94, 022002

– Bonnett C et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Redshift distributions of galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification shear catalogue and implications for weak lensing’, Phys. Rev. D 94, 042005

– Abbott T et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Cosmology from cosmic shear with Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data’, Phys. Rev. D 94, 022001

– Gruen D et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Weak lensing by galaxy troughs in DES Science Verification data’, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 455, 3367

– Suchyta E et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘No galaxy left behind: accurate measurements with the faintest objects in the Dark Energy Survey’, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 457, 786

– Chang C et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Galaxy bias from the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data: combining galaxy density maps and weak lensing maps’, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 459, 3203

– Baxter E et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘Joint measurement of lensing-galaxy correlations using SPT and DES SV data’, Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 461, 4099

– Soares-Santos M et al. (DES Collaboration) 2016, ‘A Dark Energy Camera search for an optical counterpart to the first Advanced LIGO gravitational wave event GW150914’, Astrophys. J. 823, L33


Selected research activities

– Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of APPEC, the Astroparticle Physics European Consortium of funding agencies.

– Spanish representative in the Management Committee of the “Dark Energy Survey” (DES) Collaboration.

– Member of the DES Publication Board, the DES Builders’ Committee, and the Advisory Board to the DES Director.

– Member of the Speakers Board of the “Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument” (DESI) Collaboration.