Mario Martínez

Institut de Física d'Altes Energies

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born in Madrid, he studied Theoretical Physics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He spent many years at DESY in Hamburg (Germany) studying deeply inelastic electron-proton scattering 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,  initiating operations in 2009. Since then he was acting as project leader of the IFAE-Barcelona group in ATLAS. In 2015 he was appointed Head of IFAE Experimental Division, Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics, and Scientific Delegate in CERN's Council. Starting in 2018, he initiated a new activity  related to Gravitational Waves Physics with the Virgo interferometer.


Research interests

I originally 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 13 PhD theses that I supervised to date. Since 2009, I focused on the LHC physics program at CERN.  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.  In  the period 2009-2015, I led a group of almost 30 scientists from IFAE-Barcelona that analyzes the data from the ATLAS experiment. Since 2015 I took  responsibilities as Head of IFAE Experimental Division,  Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Program, and Scientific Delegate to CERN Council.  In 2018 I have started at IFAE a new involvement in Gravitational Wave Physics in the Virgo interferometer.

Selected publications

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, 'Search for an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates produced in association with a Z boson in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector', Phys. Lett. B, 776, 318-337.

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, ‘Search for dark matter and other new phenomena in events with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector’, JHEP, 1801, 126.

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, ‘Observation of H—bb decays and VH production with the ATLAS detector’, Phys.Lett., B786, 59-86.

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, ‘Search for supersymmetry in final states with missing transverse momentum and multiple b-jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector’, JHEP, 1806, 107.

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, ‘Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector’, Eur. Phys. J., C78, no. 1, 18.  

- ATLAS Collaboration 2018, ‘Search for dark matter in events with a hadronically decaying vector boson and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector’, JHEP, 1810, 180.

Selected research activities

  • Member of the LHCC committee at CERN for the revision of CMS Upgrade Technical Design Reports.
  • Member of CMS Phase 2 Upgrade Group at CERN.
  • Head of IFAE Experimental Division.
  • PI of Gravitational Waves group at IFAE.
  • Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Programme and Scientific Delegate in CERN’s Council (until July 2018).
  • One PhD Thesis concluded in 2018 and 4 additional PhD students under my direct supervision.
  • One Master Thesis concluded in 2018.
  • Master Lessons on Higgs and Supersymmetry at  TAE2018 School (Benasque).
  • Chair of 26th International Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions , Barcelona.
  • Reviewer for Physical Review and JHEP Journals.