Mario Martínez

Institut de Física d'Altes Energies (IFAE)

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born in Madrid, 1971, he studied Theoretical Physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He spent many years in the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg (Germany) studying deeply inelastic electron-proton scattering processes in the ZEUS experiment, where he obtained his PhD and then worked as DESY researcher. In 2001, he moved to USA to work in Fermilab. He participated in the CDF experiment at the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider, with emphasis on searches for new physics. In 2007 he moved back to Europe and started working also in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN,  that initiated operations in 2009. Since then he is acting as project leader of the IFAE-Barcelona group in  CDF and ATLAS experiments. In 2015 he was appointed Head of IFAE Experimental Division, Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Program, and Scientific Delegate in CERN's Council.


Research interests

I focused on QCD studies and searches for new physics beyond the Standard Model (Higgs boson, supersymmetry, dark matter, extra-dimensions, WIMPs, etc) at particle physics collider experiments in Europe and USA. This translates into hundreds of publications, tens of conference talks, and ten PhD theses that I supervised to date. Since 2009, I mostly focused on the LHC physics program at CERN. The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful collider in the world.  In 2012 the LHC experiments (ATLAS and CMS) discovered the Higgs boson. The LHC resumed operations in 2015 with a center-of-mass energy increased from 7-8 TeV to  13 TeV, and the promise to open a new era in fundamental physics. Since 2009, I lead a group of almost 30 scientists from IFAE-Barcelona that analyzes the data from the ATLAS experiment. Since 2015 I took new responsibilities as Head of IFAE Experimental Division,  and Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Program.

Selected publications

– ATLAS Collaboration,”Dark matter interpretations of ATLAS searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in √s = 8 TeV proton–proton collisions”, JHEP 09 (2016) 175

– ATLAS Collaboration,”Search for resonances in diphoton events at s√=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, JHEP 09 (2016) 1

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for invisible decays of a Higgs boson using vector-boson fusion in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, JHEP 01 (2016) 172

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for squarks and gluinos in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector “,  Eur. Phys. J. C (2016) 76: 392

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for TeV-scale gravity signatures in high-mass final states with leptons and jets with the ATLAS detector at √s=13 TeV”,  Physics Letters B 760 (2016) 520-537

– ATLAS Collaboration,”Search for strong gravity in multijet final states produced in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC “, JHEP 03 (2016) 026

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Measurements of the Higgs boson production and decay rates and coupling strengths using pp collision data at √s=7 and 8 TeV in the ATLAS experiment”,  Eur. Phys. J. C (2016) 76:6

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for new phenomena in events with a photon and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √s=13TeV with the ATLAS detector”,  JHEP 06 (2016) 059

– ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV using the ATLAS detector”,  Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) 032005


Selected research activities

* Member of the ATLAS Publication Committee.
* Head of IFAE Experimental Division.
* Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Programme and Scientific Delegate in CERN’s Council.
* One PhD Thesis concluded in 2016 and 2 additional PhD students under my direct supervision.
* Master Lessons on Higgs and Supersymmetry at HASCO School (Goettingen, Germany).