{"id":787,"date":"2024-04-05T02:59:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T00:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/?page_id=787"},"modified":"2026-03-19T09:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:22:00","slug":"la-caixa-fellowships","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/la-caixa-fellowships\/","title":{"rendered":"“la Caixa” fellowships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Severo Ochoa Programme brings to the IFT the privilege of serving as the scientific host of the prestigious “la Caixa” Fellowships. Together with a number of other institutes of excellence in Spain and Portugal, “la Caixa” INPhINIT PhD fellows, as well as “la Caixa” Junior Leader postdoctoral fellows, have the opportunity of carrying out their projects in the stimulating environment of IFT. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“la Caixa” Junior Leaders <\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Rafael Alves Batista<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Rafael did the PhD in Hamburg (Germany) and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford (UK),  the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (Brazil), and a Radboud Excellence Fellow at the Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Netherlands. Rafael was Junior Leader Fellow at the IFT from 2021 until February 2024. He is currently a Junior Professor Chair at the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique de Paris at the Sorbonne Universit\u00e9, in France. His main research interests are  multimessenger astroparticle physics,  cosmic magnetic fields, indirect dark matter searches, structure formation, and astrobiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thomas Biek\u00f6tter<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

thomas.biekoetter@desy.de<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas did his PhD at the IFT and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) and Karlruher Institut f\u00fcr Technologie (KIT), both in Germany. Thomas is at present Junior Leader Fellow at the IFT. His main research interests cover the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking, dark matter, the phenomenology of extended Higgs sectors, collider physics and gravitational waves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Patrick Foldenauer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

patrick.foldenauer@csic.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patrick’s research interests revolve around Beyond Standard Model particle physics in the form of new light particles. In the past, he has studied models of anomaly-free U(1) extensions of the Standard Model symmetry group. He has done extensive work on phenomenological probes of the associated new U(1) gauge boson – the dark or hidden photon – at colliders, beam dump facilities, neutrino experiments and astrophysical probes. He has also explored models of light dark matter and their connection to dark photons. More recently, he has investigated the sensitivity of dark matter direct detection experiments to the interactions of (solar) neutrinos, the so-called neutrino fog. He is also a developer of the neutrino interaction code SNuDD<\/a>. A full list of his publications can be found on the high-energy physics database INSPIRE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Stefano Gariazzo<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Stefano did the PhD in Turin (Italy) and after that he moved to IFIC in Valencia, were he hold a Juan de la Cierva – Incorporaci\u00f3n contract and a Marie Sklodowska Curie fellowship within the COFUND project Fellini.\u00a0Stefano was Junior Leader Fellow at the IFT from 2023 to 2024. His main research interests are neutrinos, especially how they impact the evolution of the universe since their decoupling and until today, and statistical methods for phenomenological studies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“la Caixa” INPhINIT<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chiara Altavista<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

chiara.altavista@estudiante.uam.es<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chiara enrolled at Sapienza University of Rome in 2019 to study Physics, graduating with top marks in October 2022. She then continued at the same university with a Master\u2019s degree in Theoretical Physics, which she completed with top marks in November 2024. Her Master\u2019s thesis focused on generalized symmetries and anomalies. In October 2025, she began her PhD at the Instituto de F\u00edsica Te\u00f3rica (IFT), under the supervision of Angel Uranga. Her current research is in string theory, in the context of Swampland program and string phenomenology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Edoardo Anastasi<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

edoardo.anastasi@ift.csic.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edoardo began his academic journey at the University of Bologna in 2019, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, which he completed in 2022 with top marks. Driven by a strong passion for theoretical physics, particularly in areas related to Quantum Gravity, he enrolled in the Master’s program in Theoretical Physics at the same university later that year. During the final stages of his Master\u2019s studies, he had the opportunity to conduct his thesis research at the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, exploring aspects of the Swampland Program. In 2024, he began a PhD at the IFT under the supervision of Angel Uranga, with his research focusing on String Theory and the Swampland Program. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Miquel Aparici Domingo<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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Miquel completed a Physics degree from the University of Valencia in 2023 with academic honors, followed by an MSc in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics in Munich, where he graduated with distinction and conducted research in string theory at the Max Planck Institute. Since October 2025, he has been a PhD student at IFT under the supervision of Miguel Montero and Irene Valenzuela. His research interests include the Swampland program, string phenomenology, and the role of conformal field theories in quantum gravity. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Gabriel Fenati<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

gabriel.fenati@ift.csic.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel was born in Ravenna, Italy, in the year 2000.  He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Physics at the Alma Mater Studiorum Universit\u00e0 di Bologna (UNIBO) in 2022 (supervisor Prof. Francesco Ravanini) and with a master’s degree in Physics at the Universit\u00e4t Hamburg (UHH) in 2024 (supervisors Prof. Dr Timo Weigand, Dr. Florent Baume, Dr. Ant\u00f3nio Antunes).  In 2022 he was awarded with a one-year Scientific Qualification within the Cluster of Excellence \u201cQuantum Universe\u201d, jointly offered by UHH and the German research center Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). He is currently a PhD student at the Instituto de F\u00edsica Te\u00f3rica (IFT) in Madrid and a fellow of the “la Caixa” Foundation Doctoral INPhINIT program. Under the supervision of Dr. Miguel Montero he is investigating open questions of theoretical physics at high energies, with particular focus on Quantum Gravity, String Theory and Black Holes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Alessandra Grieco<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

alessandra.grieco@estudiante.uam.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alessandra enrols at the University of Modena in 2018 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in physics, graduating with top marks in 2021. Having discovered an interest in theoretical physics, she decides to enroll in the Master’s degree program at University of Padova which is specialized in the theoretical physics of fundamental interactions. She graduates with top marks in 2023 with a Master\u2019s thesis that explores aspects of generalized symmetries in supergravities and string theory compactifications. She is now pursuing a PhD in theoretical physics. Her work focuses on string theory and quantum gravity mainly in the context of the “Swampland program”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Karen Mac\u00edas C\u00e1rdenas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

karen.macias@estudiante.uam.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen obtained a B.Sc. in Physics from Universidad Auton\u00f3ma de Baja California (Mexico) in 2020 and a master\u2019s degree under the supervision of Aaron Vincent at Queen\u2019s University (Canada) in 2022. They are currently a la Caixa Doctoral INPhINIT Fellow at IFT under the supervision of David Cerde\u00f1o and Marina Cerme\u00f1o. Karen\u2019s main research interests are phenomenological aspects of Dark Matter and neutrinos. Specifically, she explores models of DM-neutrino and neutrino self-interactions with cosmological, astrophysical and particle physics data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Luca Melotti<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

luca.melotti@uam.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luca obtained his Bachelor\u2019s degree in physics from University of Padova in 2019 and two years later his Master\u2019s degree from the same institution, with a thesis about string theory compactifications and the Swampland Program. He is currently doing his PhD at IFT, under the supervision of Fernando Marchesano. His main research interests regard geometric aspects of string compactifications and their low energy effective field theories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Indira Ocampo Justiniano<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

indira.ocampo@csic.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indira is currently doing her PhD at the IFT under the supervision of Savvas Nesseris. She studied physics at the “Higher University of San Andr\u00e9s” in La Paz, Bolivia and obtained her Master’s degree at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Astrophysics, and then she followed the High Energy Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics predoctoral program offered by the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste. Her interests are Machine Learning applied to Large Scale Structure data analysis and model comparison with theories beyond LCDM.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Lorenzo Paoloni<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

lorenzopaoloni1997@gmail.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lorenzo got a B.Sc. in Physics and a M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics, both at the University of Bologna in Italy. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the Instituto de F\u00edsica Te\u00f3rica (IFT) under the supervision of Fernando Marchesano. His main research interests focus on Quantum Gravity, String Theory, and their phenomenological implications. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Matteo Zatti<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

matteo.zatti01@uam.es<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matteo studied at the University of Padova, where he obtained his B.Sc and M.Sc in Physics. He is currently a fourth-year PhD student in theoretical physics at the IFT. During his PhD, he pursued research in complementary research lines. Under the supervision of Prof. Fernando Marchesano, he studied superstring compactifications. Under the supervision of Prof. Tomas Ortin, he studied string theory black holes and black hole thermodynamics. He is interested in studying gravity beyond general relativity: quantum gravity, string theory, the swampland program, black hole physics, asymptotic symmetries, and holographic entanglement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Severo Ochoa Programme brings to the IFT the privilege of serving as the scientific host of the prestigious “la Caixa” Fellowships. Together with a number of other institutes of excellence in Spain and Portugal, “la Caixa” INPhINIT PhD fellows, as well as “la Caixa” Junior Leader postdoctoral fellows, have the opportunity of carrying out… Read More »“la Caixa” fellowships<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"on","neve_meta_content_width":100,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"off","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-787","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3223,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/787\/revisions\/3223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ift.uam-csic.es\/severo\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}