The researcher of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB Josep Maria Paredes, will offer the inaugural conference of the Catalan Society of Physics (SCF) for the academic year 2022-2023.
CONFERENCE: "EXTREMELY ENERGETIC EXPLOSIONS IN THE UNIVERSE"
Scientific and technological development throughout the last century and the current one has made it possible to observe the Universe in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to the most energetic gamma rays. In particular, very high energy gamma rays, the last explored window of the electromagnetic spectrum, have made it possible to characterize the physics of extremely energetic phenomena. This has made it possible to make great discoveries of the Universe in which we live, some of them associated with high-energy phenomena such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), or the emission of very high-energy gamma rays recently detected from a new recurrent in our Galaxy. In this conference, an introduction will be made to the astrophysical processes that take place in these types of objects and the most relevant results will be explained and their impact on the theoretical understanding that was available up to that point.
By Josep Maria Paredes (ICCUB-IEEC)
When? Thursday, October 13 at 7 p.m
Where? In person in the Puig i Cadafalch room of the IEC (Carre del Carme
47, 08001 Barcelona), virtually on YouTube
About the author
Prof. Paredes is a professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona, where he leads the High Energy Astrophysics group, focused on the multi-spectral study, from radio to gamma rays, of compact objects in the Galaxy , both from a theoretical and observational point of view, which imply an advance in our knowledge of particle acceleration processes and radiation mechanisms in the Universe.
Graduated in Physics, he obtained his doctorate (1987, UB) working on radio stars, being awarded the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. In 2000, he received the Ciutat de Barcelona 2000 Prize for scientific research in recognition of the discovery of the first microquasar emitting high-energy gamma rays in our galaxy.
In 2007 he was distinguished as a corresponding research member of CONICET (Argentina), and was subsequently awarded the 2010 ICREA Academy Award.
He has been Secretary (1990-1993) and Vice Dean (1993-1996) of the Faculty of Physics, and is currently the Director of the Department of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics (UB). He was Scientific Director of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB (ICCUB), being the IP of the project awarded with the distinction of excellence María de Maeztu, granted in 2015. He is a member of the Collaboration Board of MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope) since 2006 and the CTA (Cherenkov Telescope Array) Consortium since 2008.
He has published 340 articles in refereed international journals, with more than 18,000 citations and an h-index of 73. He has directed 11 doctoral theses.
Among his most relevant works, it is worth highlighting the discovery in 2000 of an X-ray binary system (LS 5039) with a relativistic jet and persistent gamma-ray emission, which demonstrated the existence of a new type of galactic sources gamma ray emitters. In 2006 he was prominently involved in the discovery of very high variable energy gamma-ray emission from the X-ray binary system LS I +61 303 using the MAGIC telescope. More recently, he has contributed to the discovery of the first X-ray binary system consisting of a Be star and a black hole.