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 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 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 (until 2025), Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics, and Scientific Delegate in CERN's Council (until June 2018). Starting in 2018, he initiated an activity on Gravitational Waves Physics with the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA interferometers and the preparation of the Einstein Telescope.

I originally focused on searches for new physics at particle physics experiments in Europe and USA. Since 2009, I focused on the LHC physics program at CERN. In 2012 the LHC experiments discovered the Higgs boson. In the period 2009-2015, I led a group of scientists from IFAE-Barcelona that analyses the data from the ATLAS experiment. In 2015 I took responsibilities as Head of IFAE Experimental Division (until 2025), Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics Program, and Scientific Delegate to CERN Council (until June 2018). In November 2018, I initiated at IFAE a brand new involvement in Gravitational Wave Physics in the Virgo interferometer with emphasis on those aspects related to fundamental physics and cosmology. I am also involved in the preparation of the Einstein Telescope (ET) 3rd-generation interferometer project. I supervised 18 PhD theses. Since 2023 I am acting as IFAE Deputy Director and since 2024 Scientific Director of the Severo Ochoa Excellence grant.