The IFT Severo Ochoa includes a strategic Excellence Visitor Program, with a number of IFT Severo Ochoa Distinguished Professor visiting positions awarded to internationally recognized world-leading scientists in the fields of Particle Physics, Astroparticles, Cosmology and Quantum Information. The aim of this program is to bolster collaborations of IFT teams with these international leaders and their institutions, and to enrich the IFT stimulating atmosphere through their visits.

 

Prof. Luis Álvarez-Gaumé

Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook

Prof. Álvarez-Gaumé is a world-renowned expert in string theory, quantum field theory, especially supersymmetric theories, and mathematical physics. His contributions pioneered the study of gauge and gravitational quantum anomalies in terms of topological index theorems. His work spans a range of different subjects, including string perturbation theory at higher orders, quantum field theories on Riemann surfaces, quantum groups, as well as dualities and black holes in string theory. He was Head of the CERN Theory group in 2008-15, and Director of the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics since 2016.

 

Prof. Alessandra Buonanno

Albert Einstein Institute, Potsdam

Prof. Buonanno is the Max director Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in Potsdam, and holds chairs at the University of Maryland and the Humboldt University in Berlin. She is well-known for her pioneering research in gravitational physics, and for being one of the leading figures in the first observation of gravitational waves by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. She is the recipient of the 2021 Dirac Medal.

 

Prof. Graciela Gelmini

University of California Los Angeles

Prof. Gelmini is a world-recognized expert on Astroparticle physics, a field in which she has made major contributions in the study of high-energy cosmic rays in the Physics of neutrinos, and specially in the question of the nature of cosmological dark matter, including the analysis of potential particle candidates and their observation in direct detection experiments. She is also a prominent member of the Aspen Center for Physics as Chair of the Committee for Participant Diversity. In 2004 she was recognized as Fellow of the American Physical Society.

 

Prof. Luciano Maiani

University of Roma, La Sapienza

Prof. Maiani is a world reference in Particle Physics, with essential contributions like the Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani (GIM) mechanism leading to the prediction of the charm quark and crucial for formulating the unification of the electroweak interactions. He has received prestigious prizes as the 1987 Sakurai Prize and the 2007 Dirac Medal. He has been President of the Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy from 1993 to 1998, and Director General at CERN from 1999 to 2003. He has received prestigious prizes as the 1979 Matteucci Medal, the 1987 Sakurai Prize and the 2007 Dirac Medal. In 2011 he received the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society and in 2015 the Pontecorvo Prize.

 

Prof. Michelangelo Mangano

CERN

Prof. Mangano is a world-leading researcher in Particle Physics, specializing in the boundary between theory and experiments. His main area of expertise is the dynamics of high-energy particle collisions, and their use for the understanding of elementary particles and for the search and study of the fundamental interactions.

 

Prof. Fernando Quevedo

University of Cambridge

Prof. Quevedo is a world-renowned expert in string theory. He has dedicated an important part of his career to the articulation of the international science system, including a long period as the director of the ICTP in Trieste. Among other recognitions, he is a recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.