Fitxa persona

He obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Valencia in 1991 and subsequently carried out a long postdoctoral stay (1991–1995) at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA, Garching, Germany), funded by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and a Marie Curie contract from the European Commission. The research conducted at MPA (1993–1995) was selected by the European Commission for its “particular interest”. He is currently Full Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Valencia.

He has published more than 80 papers in indexed journals (over 20 in the last decade), with 4,898 citations, an h-index of 40 and an I100 index of 18 (ADS). His scientific output averages 125 citations per year (213 citations per year over the last ten years) and an average of four authors per publication. He holds six research merit periods (“sexenios”).

His main research lines include: (1) numerical methods in relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (RHD/RMHD), (2) the physics of extragalactic jets, and (3) magnetic fields in Cosmology. He has participated uninterruptedly in competitive research projects since 1987, contributing to the establishment and consolidation of the Relativistic Astrophysics group at the University of Valencia. After returning from MPA, he initiated within the group the research line on extragalactic jets. Since 2007, he has also participated in Cosmology projects, studying the influence of jets on galaxy evolution and the evolution of the primordial magnetic field. In 2022 he contributed to the creation of the new research group High-Energy Outflows in Astrophysics.

His early contributions (1991–1994) to numerical methods in relativistic hydrodynamics were pioneering, enabling the first simulations of ultrarelativistic flows and establishing high-resolution shock-capturing schemes as the standard numerical approach in RHD and RMHD. He has played a key role in developing the group’s multidimensional numerical codes (RHD, RMHD) and in extending these techniques to general relativistic hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics. In addition, his expertise in numerical methods for magnetized fluids made it possible to extend the hydrodynamical module of the group’s cosmological code to MHD.

These advances made possible the first worldwide simulations of relativistic extragalactic jets at parsec (contributing to the interpretation of their phenomenology: underlying flow, stationary and moving components, magnetic field structure) and kiloparsec scales (morphology, dynamics and long-term evolution). He has also studied the role of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities in relativistic flows and their impact on jet stability, mass loading, deceleration, disruption and observational signatures. His research on extragalactic jets has progressively expanded to include the interpretation of observations across multiple spatial scales, the impact of jets on galactic and intergalactic environments, and their connection with high-energy emission processes.

Throughout his academic career, he has taught Mathematics in several engineering degrees, as well as Algebra and Geometry, Fluid Physics and Astrophysics in the Physics degree. He has taught courses on Numerical Techniques in Astrophysics and Computational Astrophysics in various master’s programmes. He is co-author of an Algebra and Geometry textbook published by the University of Valencia. He is the local coordinator of the Double Degree in Physics with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany). He has coordinated the organisation of several Physics Summer Schools in collaboration with various European universities in the Forthem Alliance. He holds six teaching merit periods (“quinquenios docentes”).

He has supervised or co-supervised four PhD theses. He has also held several academic management responsibilities, including serving as Secretary of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics for more than five years (2001–2006) and as Head of the same department for six years (2006–2012). Since November 2022 he has been Vice-Dean for Quality and Internationalisation at the Faculty of Physics.