- juliedalgobbo
- Mar 9, 2022
Name: Francesca Capel
Current position: Postdoc
Affiliation: TU Munich
Field of research: Astroparticle physics
What is your career trajectory to date?
I studied my undergraduate in physics at Imperial College London (2010 - 2014), including a year at the EPFL in Switzerland for my master thesis working on plasma physics for nuclear fusion. After graduating, I worked in the Space Environments department at ESA in The Netherlands as a graduate trainee for a year. Finally, I started my PhD in astroparticle physics at KTH in Sweden (2015 - 2020), and now I'm continuing as a postdoc in Munich.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
What are the sources of cosmic rays and neutrinos at the highest energies? How are the different astrophysical messengers connected?
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
Like: Freedom to work on interesting problems.
Dislike: The broken academic system.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
I think I am a quick learner and enjoy teaching myself new skills. This has allowed me to get involved in different fields in my career so far and work on both instrumentation and data analysis/theory.
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
In 2019, the Mini-EUSO experiment that I had helped build as part of my PhD was launched to the International Space Station. Even though it is a small project, watching it launch to space and learning that my software was working was certainly a huge moment of excitement (and relief)!
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
I want to learn more about X-ray and gamma-ray data analysis for some fun project ideas that I have. I'm also interested in likelihood-free inference methods and understanding if they can be used to solve some problems that I'm stuck on.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
The many future experiments planned in my field will surely bring exciting results, but I'm also looking forward to more advanced data analysis methods being used to gain insight from the existing data.
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
The lack of open data and analysis tools! Most of the time, the high-level information that is published by experimental collaborations invariably has assumptions and models baked into it, making it unsuitable for proper use in an independent analysis. Even if you are inside a collaboration, if you want to use data from another experiment, the problem persists. For multi-messenger astrophysics to really take off, we need to find a way to share information that doesn't involve the overhead of being a member in N different collaborations with complicated agreements between them.
What role do you think a community network like EuCAPT can play in developing theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe?
I hope that EuCAPT can help us form connections and help encourage open data and software initiatives in the field.
What’s your favorite food?
Fish and chips bought from the chippy on Fore St. in Salcombe. Ideally should be eaten out of old newspapers while swearing loudly at the local seagulls who will be viciously attacking you. (I am nostalgic after having not been to the UK since 2019).
Have you lived in a different European country than you do now? If so, would you like to tell us something about it, e.g. a fond memory or something you found surprising?
I've managed to live in 5 different European countries so far, and it has been a great experience. I would say that it really helps if you make an effort with the local language, and that stereotypes are often (at least loosely) rooted in reality.
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
I like to mix up a mean G&T/negroni, or get outdoors and do some kind of fun sport to offset the aforementioned drinking habit.
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
Despite having no musical talent, I insist upon teaching myself the guitar and singing karaoke at every opportunity. I also really love long distance sport challenges and have completed marathons and an Iron Man 70.3 triathlon.
If you were not a scientist, what do you think you would be doing?
If science doesn't work out, I plan to change my name to Malory Archer and set up an dysfunctional secret intelligence agency.
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
Of course, I hope for viable nuclear fusion, the nature of dark matter and dark energy to be realised, a unified theory of nature and a moon-base that accepts tourists. Too much to ask? While scientists are accomplishing these things, I hope that someone also finds the time to make real change in the academic system. It would be great for everyone if the incentives for being successful in academia could actually line up with those of being a good scientist.
- juliedalgobbo
- Mar 2, 2022
Name: Oscar Macias
Current position: Postdoc
Affiliation: GRAPPA (University of Amsterdam)
Field of research: Astroparticle Physics, Indirect Dark Matter Searches
What is your career trajectory to date?
I am originally from Colombia. I completed my undergraduate and master's degrees at the National University of Colombia in 2011 and my doctoral work in astrophysics at the University of Canterbury in 2014 under the direction of Chris Gordon. I was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Neutrino Physics in Virginia Tech from 2015-2018, and moved to another postdoctoral position to the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo University from 2018-2021. I am now a GRAPPA Fellow at the University of Amsterdam.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
In my opinion, the single most important question in modern science corresponds to the nature of dark matter. It is the most abundant substance in the entire Universe, and yet we don't have a clue of what it is, how it interacts with normal matter, what is its lifetime, etc. Currently, we can only observe dark matter through its gravitational interactions. But what would be ground breaking is if Dark Matter particles could produce observable non-gravitational signals such as photons, neutrinos, and charged cosmic rays as the result of collisions with each other. Now, a quick survey to the literature on the subject for the last 10 years would reveal there are a few tentative detections of dark matter emission in various astrophysical datasets. Examples include: the so-called Galactic Center gamma-ray excess seen by the Fermi telescope, the positron/antiproton excess seen by PAMELA/AMS-02 instruments, and the 3.5 keV line observed by variuos X-ray telescopes; to name only a few of the most famous ones. I think there is an imperative need in our field to resolve these puzzles and figure out whether what we are seen are mere false positives or something more interesting!
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
I love the fact that every time I get to the office, I know I will be working on something new and exciting. I truly enjoy the freedom that we researchers are given to work on whatever we think is interesting and cool. However, not everything in science is rosy: there are difficult long-standing problems in our field such as discrimination. We all would be better off with a lot less of that stuff!
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
Back in 2012, Christoph Weniger wrote a paper claiming the detection of a gamma-ray line at ~130 GeV. Back then, it was pretty clear that gamma-ray lines are close-to-impossible to be produced by standard astrophysical objects. So, I seriously believed that we had seen dark matter for the first time! - The moment I read that paper, I abandoned everything I was doing and started doing Galactic Center research. In the end it turned out to be just an instrumental artifact. However, mother nature has been kind to us and has given us the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess, which we are not completely sure what it is yet, but it most certainly is not a statistical fluctuation!
What’s your favorite food?
My favorite food is "Colombian Tamales" :). A tamale is a traditional dish, made of corn dough, and various veggies (the traditional also contains a lot of beef, but I'm nowadays into vegetarian tamales) which is steamed in a banana leaf. The Mexican Tamales are pretty tasty as well. If you ever go to a Colombian/Mexican restaurant, don't hesitate to ask for a Tamale, you won't regret it ;).
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
I like to take a dive into my favorite high-fantasy novels. I only recently discovered that there is much more than "The Lord of the Rings" out there. I just finished reading the amazing "The Stormight Archive", and am currently fully immersed in the fantastic world of "The Sword of Truth".
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years? I would like to see particle dark matter in the "periodic table" (A.k.a the "particle data group"), of course!
- juliedalgobbo
- Feb 23, 2022
Name: Celia Escamilla-Rivera
Current position: Faculty
Affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares ICN UNAM
Field of research: Theoretical and Observational Cosmology
What is your career trajectory to date?
Currently, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS) and Professor and Head of the Gravitation and Field Department in ICN UNAM Mexico. In 2019 I had a research appointment at Abdus Salam ICTP. In 2016 I was a postdoc visitor at Observatorio Nacional Rio de Janeiro as CNPq Fellow. From 2010 to 2014 I was PhD in Basque Country University and PhD student visitor at University of Oxford, UK. In 2009 Honorary student at University of Utrecht, The Netherlands. In 2007 SNI III assistant project at University of Cambridge (DAMTP) UK. Up to this date, I am Member of the Sociedad Mexicana de Física, Member of National System of Researchers and State System of Researchers (Honorific) and Research Fellow of the Advanced Institute of Cosmology (IAC) A.C.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
- What is the nature of dark energy? Can dark energy be dynamical?
- Does gravity behave like General Relativity even at horizon size scales? Is there Modified Gravity?
- What is the origin of the sharpened tension in the observed and inferred values as, for example, the Hubble constant?
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
On the whole, I cannot imagine being anything but a scientist, and of course all jobs have ups and downs to them. I feel fortunate to have this career and I know that for many scientists one of the downsides is the lack of faculty jobs and financial support. There is some hope that with increased fundings from the government budget, if that continues, that unfortunate situation might improve.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
While I am theoretician by heart, I found very useful to test my theoretical proposals with current observational surveys. And also, I have a clarity/pedagogic skills when giving talks.
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
The day I heard David Gross saying "we would not call it a tension or problem, but rather a crisis", in a conference at California. This event discussed in deep the issues related to the different expansion rates of the Universe. This fact can change the age of the Universe, which was my first question when I was a child: how the scientist know how old is the Universe? Now this question is my job and passion. I had made very good colleagues and friends due this question. And it opens a new era: the serious search of new physics...
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
A well-comprehensive understanding of the machine learning techniques in Cosmology. And on the personal front, to obtain -- finally!-- my license to pilot helicopters.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
To get to the bottom on the Hubble constant tension issue.
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
I can say for sure that 10 years ago I did not anticipate spending so much time writing national grants, which comes at the expense of some of time that could go to the other important and more enjoyable parts of being a cosmologist. Coming with the whole grant game can be a relatively frequent stream of rejection, which is no fun, but can give one a thick skin.
What role do you think a community network like EuCAPT can play in developing theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe?
EuCAPT network will be essential to remove barriers between researchers and institutions, in such a way that everyone would be able to reach out colleagues in multidisciplinary fields. And we should not forget the importance of also cooperating with researchers outside Europe.
What’s your favorite food?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that if the pizza is good, the rest of the food does not matter.
Have you lived in a different European country than you do now? If so, would you like to tell us something about it, e.g. a fond memory or something you found surprising?
While I now live in Mexico, I lived 5 years in the north of Spain. But my fond memories belongs to UK. From the cosmopolitan London, the student ambience in Oxford and the marvellous food and nature that Scotland offers, I leaved my heart there.
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
With a fencing epee match following by a good glass of Barolo.
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
I love fencing. Fencing is a sport that combines the physical and mental strengths of each person, also has a long tradition of civility and respect towards one’s opponent, aspects that also applies also outside of the sport.
If you were not a scientist, what do you think you would be doing?
Looking a way to be it! Science is written in my DNA. But I would not say no to an olympic fencer profession.
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
The discovery of the nature of dark energy and the Hubble tension.