Department: Estructura de la Materia, Física Térmica y Electrónica

Faculty: Ciencias Físicas

Centre/Institute: Instituto de Física de Partículas y del Cosmos (IPARCOS)

Area: Atomic, Molecular and Nuclear Physics

Research group: Grupo de Física de Altas Energías

Email: alberd02@ucm.es

Personal web: https://ucm.es/blazars

Doctor by the Universidad de Sevilla with the thesis Extragalactic background light and its implications for galaxy evolution and gamma-ray astronomy 2011. Supervised by Dr. Manuel Lozano Leyva, Dr. Francisco Prada Martínez.

My h-index is 65 (NASA/ADS metrics). I have authored 15 first or corresponding author articles in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals (ApJ, ApJ Letters, MNRAS, JCAP), including one in Science, totaling 2,122 citations since 2011. Notable works include Dominguez et al. (2011) with 692 citations (a key model in gamma-ray astronomy), Ackermann et al. (2017) with 301 citations (3FHL catalog), Ajello et al. (2016) with 244 citations (2FHL catalog), Dominguez et al. (2013a) with 231 citations (Balmer decrements via Hubble data), and Dominguez et al. (2013b) with 92 citations (cosmic gamma-ray horizon detection). I have also contributed significantly to 50 other articles (often as 2nd or 3rd author), totaling 4,464 citations, along with approximately 100 papers as a MAGIC collaboration member and 14 as a Fermi-LAT researcher. I received my PhD in Astrophysics in 2011, focusing on the extragalactic background light (EBL) and its role in galaxy evolution and gamma-ray astronomy, co-supervised by Dr. Francisco Prada and Prof. Manuel Lozano. During my PhD, I contributed to the MAGIC collaboration and spent two years at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with Prof. Joel Primack, working on high-energy gamma-ray and galaxy evolution research. I then completed postdoctoral positions at the University of California, Riverside (with Prof. Brian Siana, using Hubble Space Telescope data) and Clemson University (with Prof. Marco Ajello, co-leading Fermi-LAT source catalog projects). I spent about six years at U.S. institutions. In 2015, I joined the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, earning a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (2nd in the Physics Area) and later a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (5th in the Physics Area, 2019–2024). Since March 2024, I have been a Profesor Permanente Laboral. My research spans gamma-ray, optical, and infrared astronomy, focusing on the intersection of astronomy, cosmology, and astroparticle physics. Throughout my career, I have prioritized mentoring and supervising students. I co-directed a PhD thesis (Peñil et al. 2020, 64 citations), three Master’s theses, including Saldana-Lopez et al. (2021, 79 citations), and several undergraduate theses, including van den Berg et al. (2019, 24 citations). In addition, I have actively supported students and postdocs by co-authoring numerous papers as a second author, guiding their research and contributing to impactful publications. This mentorship has significantly contributed to the development of future researchers. As Principal Investigator, I have led seven observational programs with GTC and TNG (including three GTC DDTs) and recently secured funding through the “Plan Estatal PID2021” program. This leadership in observational projects complements my active involvement in major international collaborations. I previously led the Fermi-LAT "Blazars and Other Active Galactic Nuclei" group (2017 - 2019, with approximately 170 members) and currently contribute to the CTA collaboration's "Source Population Studies" group. I have also served on the Time Allocation Committee of Spanish Telescopes, supporting the broader research community, and on the Astrophysics Master’s committee at UCM for more than two years. My work has received media coverage, including NASA press releases and articles in Scientific American and Investigación y Ciencia. I have delivered 19 invited talks at major international conferences, including a “highlight” at ICRC'17 and a plenary at the Sociedad Española de Astronomía, along with 30 contributed talks and over 40 seminars at institutions such as Stanford, Caltech, and DESY-Berlin. I regularly review for ApJ, ApJ Letters, and MNRAS and referee papers for the Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, and CTA collaborations.