My research activities are centered around high energy astrophysics and observational cosmology. I started my scientific career studying ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). These energetic particles led me to work on their extragalactic and Galactic propagation as well as to study the astrophysical sources in the local Universe capable of their acceleration. I study now the Universe as a whole, its geometry, its energy content and its evolution over the course of time using the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation.
Overview
Over the course of my career, I have enjoyed being part of large international collaborations, which have brought together a broad community of scientists to work on world-class projects. As a member of the Pierre Auger Collaboration, I was involved in a variety of scientific activities ranging from data quality improvement and the reconstruction of the UHECRs properties to the analysis of these events and their astrophysical interpretations. Being in the field of Astroparticle Physics gave me the opportunity to collaborate with people from different backgrounds but also to learn analysis/statistical methods and software used in the Particle Physics and Astrophysics communities. As the Pierre Auger Observatory is located in the Argentinian Andes, I have traveled there for collaboration, data acquisition, and also to participate in the extensive outreach program.
In order to broaden my scientific horizons, I have joined the Planck HFI Core Team to conduct CMB analysis. Similar to the Pierre Auger Observatory, the Planck mission gathers together researchers with varied perspectives and scientific interests. My primary focus during my postdoctoral appointment was to build a likelihood function that effectively compares the data recorded by the Planck satellite with cosmological models. A secondary goal was to estimate the astrophysical foreground emissions that contribute to the microwave sky both in temperature and polarization.