The Host Institution is the Institute of Space Sciences (Institut de Ciències de l’Espai, ICE). Currently, ICE counts over 20 faculty members, about 20 engineers, about 20 post-doc fellows and a dozen of PhD students. The areas of research vary, from engineering applied to several space missions to fundamental physics, from high-energy astronomy to theoretical astrophysics. ICE pertains to the Spanish National Research Council (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC). CSIC is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. ICE is also part of the Catalan Institute of Space Studies (Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, IEEC). ICE is located in the campus of the Autonomous Univerisity of Barcelona (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, UAB) in Bellaterra, just outside Barcelona.
Within ICE, the project collaborates with the new Marie-Curie fellow Fabio del Sordo, expert in dynamo simulations and star-planet interactions. Moreover, the worldwide recognized astronomers in the field of exoplanets, Ignasi Ribas (director of IEEC) and Guillem Anglada-Escudé lead a team of PhD students, post-doc and engineers. They are involved in different missions and projects regarding exoplanetary detection and methods. We collaborate with Josep Miquel Girart and his team with the complementary topic of magnetic fields in proto-planetary systems, through observations with ALMA and VLA telescopes, among others.
We have recently become part of the CARMENES collaboration, within which we are involved in the Star-Planet Interaction working group, led by Miguel Pérez-Torres (IAA-CSIC).
The project will also count on external collaborations, among which:
Rosalba Perna (Stony Brook University) for turbulence and heating in Hot Jupiters
Mayank Narang, Manoj Puravankara (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) for observational proposals with GRMT
Kaustubh Hakim (Center for Space and Habitability, University of Bern) for internal structure and cooling
Carlos Palenzuela & his UIB/IAC3 team for numerical methods
Illustration and graphics are designed and produced by Elena Borghese
Website designed by Davide Inzaghi
We recommend both of them for their professionality and creativity!
Beyond science, the PI personally acknowledges the great work done by the following associations and friends
Open Arms – Saving lives is not a crime
Kafophan (Kalangala Forum of People living with HIV/AIDS Network) – Supporting the most vulnerables in the breathtaking Ssese Islands, Lake Victoria.
Save the Med
Legambiente Lecco