Ramon Miquel Pascual

Ramon Miquel Pascual

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 from 2015 to 2022. Working on the "Dark Energy Survey" (DES), "Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument" (DESI), and IFAE-led "Physics of the Accelerating Universe" (PAU) projects, trying 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

- Abbott TMC et al. (DES Collaboration) 2023, 'Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Constraints on extensions to Lambda CDM with weak lensing and galaxy clustering', Physical Review D 107, 083504
- Gordon C et al. (DESI Collaboration) 2023, '3D Correlations in the Lyman-a Forest from Early DESI Data', Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 1, 045.
- Abbott TMC et al. (KiDS and DES Collaborations) 2023, 'Consistent cosmology combining cosmic shear surveys', Open J. Astrophysics, 6.
- Giannini G et al. (DES Collaboration) 2023, 'Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: redshift calibration of the MagLim lens sample from the combination of SOMPZ and clustering and its impact on cosmology', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 527, 2010.

Selected research activities

-Member of the Board of the High Energy and Particle Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS-HEPP)
-Chair of the Membership Committee of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) Collaboration
-Spanish representative in the Management Committee of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) Collaboration
-Chair of the DES Builders' Committee
-Member of the DES Publications Board