- juliedalgobbo
Name: Viviana Gammaldi
Current position: Postdoc
Affiliation: Universidad Autonoma Madrid
Field of research: Dark Matter, Indirect detection, gamma rays, TeV WIMP, Astroparticle physics, Machine learning
What is your career trajectory to date?
Since 2019 I am a "Juan de la Cierva" fellow, working at the Department of Theoretical Physics (DFT - UAM) and Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT UAM-CSIC) on dark matter phenomenology, indirect searches, multi-TeV WIMPs, astroparticle physics, gamma ray, astrophysics, machine learning and artificial neural network. I am a member of Fermi-LAT and CTA collaborations. My first postdoc was at the Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy. Before, I collaborated with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), DF, with the fellow “Becas Santander Iberoamérica Jóvenes Profesores e Investigadores y Alumnos de Doctorado. España 2015". I got my PhD Degree on “Indirect searches for TeV Dark Matter” at the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. I got my bachelor and master degrees in Physics, Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of Study of Naples "Federico II”, Italy.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
What is dark matter?
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
I like the possibility to be creative, to contribute with new ideas to solve the cosmological puzzle.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
I have original ideas and good organisation skills, I am proud to notice that my collaborators are frequently inspired by those. I am an honest person.
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
Right now, working with students and developing my own research.
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
More about machine learning.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
Discovery of the black hole Sgr A* at the Galactic Center and experimental data at TeV energy scale.
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
Experimental data at TeV energy scale.
What role do you think a community network like EuCAPT can play in developing theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe?
Support young researcher, by improving collaborations and networking.
What’s your favorite food?
Pizza napoletana, jamón iberico.
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?
"Volentieri".
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
Outdoor activities, dancing.
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
Outdoor sporting activities, dancing, writing, painting...
If you were not a scientist, what do you think you would be doing?
Astronaut!
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
The dark matter discovery: who was right?
- juliedalgobbo
Name: Jose W F Valle
Current position: PhD
Affiliation: IFIC (AHEP), Valencia
Field of research: High energy and astroparticle physics
What is your career trajectory to date?
1990-present SENIOR, Valencia U., IFIC
1987-1990 VISITOR, Valencia U., IFIC
1986-1986 VISITOR, Barcelona, IFAE
1983-1985 POSTDOC, Rutherford Lab, UK
1977-1982 PHD, Syracuse U.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
The family problem, the nature of neutrinos and the origin of their masses, connections to unification, gravity and cosmology.
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
The expression of curiosity subject to experimental falsification or confirmation.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
Creativity and critical thinking.
In your career so far, at what point were you the most excited, and what were you excited about?
The discovery of neutrino oscillations and the confirmation of the existence of neutrino mass of which I was lucky to be a theory pioneer.
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
I wish to learn more about the theory of gravitational waves and phase transitions.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
The discovery of neutrinoless double beta decay,
Progress on flavour physics,
Advances in cosmology.
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
Excessive bureaucracy in securing funding.
What role do you think a community network like EuCAPT can play in developing theoretical astroparticle physics and cosmology in Europe?
Coordination, leaving enough room for imagination and small experiments.
What’s your favorite food?
Mediterranean.
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 lived in the UK, the memory is quite pleasant, but this was quite a while ago.
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
Gastronomy, music, social nets
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
Reading, listening to music and watching movies.
What do you hope to see accomplished scientifically in the next 50 years?
Understanding of the arquitecture of the fundamental interactions, including gravity. Elucidating the nature of neutrinos and understanding the origin of their mass. Understanding fermion mass hierarchies and mixing patterns.
- juliedalgobbo
Name: Alejandra Aguirre-Santaella
Current position: PhD
Affiliation: Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT UAM-CSIC)
Field of research: Astroparticle physics, cosmological simulations and indirect dark matter searches.
What is your career trajectory to date?
Since I finished the Double Degree in Physics and Mathematics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain), I studied the Master in Theoretical Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain). Then, I started my PhD at Instituto de Física Teórica, a mixed institute which belongs both to the UAM and the CSIC.
What are the most exciting open questions in your research area?
Actually, I am currently working on subhalo survival, i.e., trying to give an answer to the hot debate about whether the small dark matter substructure in galaxies like ours disrupts after several orbits around the host due to tidal forces or a remnant still survives (which would be very promising for dark matter searches!)
What do you like and dislike about being a scientist?
One of the thinks I like most is schedule flexibility. I also think that having a nice work environment is a real plus, which I have (although everything has changed a bit since the pandemic in this sense...). I don't like that science is not so open and honest as I initially thought. It is usually driven by political interests. And sometimes it is way more competitive than collaborative. Furthermore, I think it should be better paid, specially in some countries.
Which of your skills are you most proud of, or find most useful?
I would say I am good at solving problems computationally, which is quite useful for the kind of work I have to do. I like programming, thus I am always interested in creating new pieces of code as long as they serve a purpose.
What new skills would you like to learn in the next year?
I would love to know more about generating cosmological simulations, as well as machine learning techniques via Python.
What advances or new results are you excited about or looking forward to?
It would be really nice to really shed light on the nature of dark matter!
What is the biggest obstacle that is slowing down your research field right now?
Computational limitations are always a problem when dealing with numerical simulations. We cannot generate "naturally" the less massive subhalos, so we have to come up with alternatives.
What’s your favorite food?
I am not a food specialist, but (vegetarian) pizza? I guess it will become vegetarian sushi as soon as it exists and tastes like fish sushi :P
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?
Not for more than three months (in Canada). I saw how bad public transport works there, specially between different cities...
How do you like to relax after a hard day of work?
Playing board games or videogames, listening to music (although I usually do this at all times), sometimes reading, or just chatting.
Do you have any non-physics interests that you would like to share?
I love mostly every kind of music, and good fantasy stories! I am also involved in gender and LGBTIAQ+ activism. Actually, I am a member of the EDI committee. Besides, I have some basic knowledge of graphic design and I take advantage of it from time to time.
If you were not a scientist, what do you think you would be doing?
Ideally, maybe singing or proofreading fantasy books ;)
What question would you have liked us to ask you, and what would you have responded?
Maybe something about what my research topic is in a deeper way? I answered before but using a different question :)