Meet the Team

American physicist and astronomer, professor of astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He is known for his contributions to astrophysics and the search for extraterrestrial life, particularly in the areas of telescope and detection system development, the study of the Sun and its corona, and the search for planets around other stars. He has made contributions to the fields of astrophysics and the search for extraterrestrial life. He is known for his work on the development of telescopes and detection systems, including the Princeton Solar Distortion Telescope (PSDT), the National Solar Observatory Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT), and the University of Hawaii Solar Observatory for Limb Active Regions and Coronae (Solar-C). He has also contributed to the design of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) and the Giant Magellan Telescope, and has conceived of other telescopes that are in the planning or construction phases, including the Polarized Light from Atmospheres of Nearby Extra-Terrestrial Systems (PLANETS) telescope and the Exo-Life Finder telescopes (ELF and MiniELF).

Rafael Rebolo López is a Spanish astrophysicist. Rebolo earned a degree in physics from the University of Granada in 1984 and a doctorate in astrophysics from the University of La Laguna in 1987. He is the director of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC) since August 2013. He is a professor at the Spanish National Research Council and an external professor at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and a member of the Max Planck Society since 2002. Rebolo and his team were responsible for the discovery in 1995 of the first brown dwarfs and the discovery of several giant extrasolar planets in 2000. He provided empirical evidence in 1999 of the physical connection between supernovae and black holes. He has been a pioneer in Spain in the  experimental research of the cosmic microwave background.
See his profile on Wikipedia

Nicolas Lodieu is a staff astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de  Canarias in La Laguna, Tenerife. Born in the renowned wine region of  Médoc, France, he completed his education in France before moving to  Potsdam for his Ph.D. During his post-doctoral research associate  fellowship at the University of Leicester in the UK, he contributed to  the commissioning and science exploitation of a major infrared sky  survey. He then relocated to the Canary Islands with a 5-year Ramon y  Cajal fellowship, where he developed expertise in low-mass stars, brown  dwarfs, and planetary-mass objects within the solar neighborhood, open  clusters, and star-forming regions. More recently, he has become a  specialist in exoplanets at young ages, aiming to refine stellar and  planetary formation models. Since 2020, he has served as the project  scientist for the Small-ELF prototype.  More information here.See his profile on Wikipedia and his Personal Website.

Víctor Quintero León is a European Projects’ Expert with extensive experience in EU Financing Programmes through more than 15 years work in different institutions such as regional NGOs (Management of ERDF and ESF funds – Interregional and Cross-Border Cooperation Programmes); International Organizations (UNICEF, internship in United Nations UNESCO-Unevoc centre) Universities and Research Centres. Master in International Relations and Evaluator of different EU Programmes, he has managed and monitored Education, International Cooperation and Research & Innovation projects through the Horizon 2020 Programme, the European Neighbourhood Instrument, Erasmus+, as well as ERC Advanced Grants such as POLMAG, after winning a five years position funded by the project. Since February 2023, he is working as the Project Manager of LIOM. Víctor takes care of all the administrative work related with the set-up and development of the new Laboratory in Opto-Mechanics and with LIOM team activities.

I have over 19 years of work experience in engineering, including 3 years in construction projects as a Civil Engineer and the last 16 years as a Mechanical Engineer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Working at IAC has allowed me to develop my professional career in an international environment, being involved in significant astronomical instruments such as Osiris, EMIR, QUIJOTE, GRANCAIN, HORUS, HARMONI, ADFEMOS and mKIDs.

In terms of my academic background, I obtained my PhD in Energy Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Seville, Spain in 2012. Since then, I have been involved in R&D projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Furthermore, I was awarded the SEVERO OCHOA research grant, which allowed me to enhance my training at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental organization committed to constructing, developing, and managing state-of-the-art ground-based observatories.

I have recently joined the LIOM team as Technical Manager, which is a great opportunity to work with other experts on such an interesting and leading LIOM project.

I studied for a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a master’s degree in Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, where I am originally from. Although my initial dream was to explore the cosmos as an astrophysicist, my career path took me from the biggest to the smallest: quantum physics. For more than seven years I worked in a quantum optics laboratory at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), in Barcelona, contributing to the development of the quantum Internet.

Now, returning to my roots, I am excited to contribute to the field of astrophotonics within the LIOM team. In addition to my work in the lab, I am passionate about scientific outreach and I love dancing!

I received my MSc. degree in Applied Physics at the University of La Laguna (Spain) and completed my PhD in engineering in Nuclear Physics at LTH, Lund University (Sweden). Since then, I was dedicated to cross-disciplinary projects related to cancer research covering the fields of molecular imaging (diagnosis/monitoring/prognosis) and particle irradiation (therapy) at several research institutions within Europe. I came back to the Canaries in 2018 to join the Medical Technology Group at IACTEC at the Instituto de Astrofísica de  Canarias (IAC). There, I was focused on the development of a low-cost, portable, multimodal thermographic system (infrared and microwave sensors) for the detection of abnormal temperature patterns in patients affected by diabetic neuropathies. Recently, I joined the LIOM team to refocus and adapt my research experience in machine learning approaches to wavefront sensing for Adaptive Optics.

After studying Physics and Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna I worked as a Telescopic Operations Technician at Teide Observatory for two years. During this period, I realised that what interested me most about observing the sky was ‘how’ rather than ‘what’, as well as the huge amount of information that light carries. The different concepts and principles used to build the instruments allowing to examine it engrossed me. Hence, I decided to major in Optics, the field in which I have been working and receiving training for four years, advised by Dr. Jorge Sánchez-Capuchino Revuelta, within the frameworks of my MSc final project and my ongoing PhD thesis. Of all that optics encompases, I am specialised in the design of broadband colour corrected lens based systems and the manufacturing of aspherical surfaces. In the LIOM project I make the leap to innovative manufacturing techniques for thin off-axis aspherical mirrors as a laboratory optical engineer.

Born in Arequipa (Peru), I’ve always been passionate about technology. Growing up with an engineer father has allowed me to learn and develop my skills from an early age. At the age of 17 I moved to Tenerife (Spain) to study a degree in Electronic Engineering and later to Madrid for a master’s degree in Robotics and Automation. Since then, I’ve worked in research, avionics and aerospace electronics. I’ve also taught classes in various subjects for some years since education has also always been another of my passions. I’m currently studying music in Tenerife Conservatory and recently joined LIOM with the new and exciting challenge of developing the Telescope Control System for the Small-ELF.

I’m Alejandro, a Mechanical Engineer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). My journey began working in electromechanical workshops while studying for my Mechanical Industrial Engineering degree. I explored various areas of industrial engineering before discovering my passion at the IAC, where I was fascinated by the science and technology behind telescopes. This experience inspired me to pursue a Master’s in Industrial Engineering while managing infrastructure for an innovative public company. Now, I’m back at the IAC, working on the exciting S-ELF telescope project, where I manage both technical and administrative aspects.