Miquel Pascual, Ramon – ICREA Memoir 2021

Ramon Miquel

Institut de Física d'Altes Energies

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. Postdoctoral 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 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 Accelerating 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

– Vielzeuf P. et al. 2021 (DES Collaboration), ‘Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results: the lensing imprint of cosmic voids on the cosmic microwave background‘, MNRAS 500, 464.

– Gatti, M. et al. 2021 (DES Collaboration), ‘Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: weak lensing shape catalogue‘, MNRAS 504, 4312.

– Jeffrey, N.; Gatti, M. et al. 2021 (DES Collaboration), ‘Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: curved-sky weak lensing mass map reconstruction‘, MNRAS 505, 4626.

– Alarcon, A. et al. 2021 (PAU Collaboration), ‘The PAU survey: an improved photo-z sample in the COSMOS field‘, MNRAS 501, 6103.

– Cabayol, L. et al. 2021 (PAU Collaboration), ‘The PAU survey: estimating galaxy photometry with deep learning‘, MNRAS 506, 4048.

– Tortorelli, L.; Siudek, M. et al. 2021 (PAU Collaboration), ‘The PAU survey: measurement of narrow-band galaxy properties with approximate bayesian computation‘, JCAP 12, 013.

Selected research activities

– Member of the Board of the High Energy and Particle Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS-HEPP).

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

– Chair of the DES Builders’ Committee.

– Member of the DES Publication Board and the Advisory Board to the DES Director.

– Member of the Membership Committee of the “Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument” (DESI) Collaboration.