What is your position or role in the DESI project?
I co-lead the topical group in charge of analyzing DESI data alongside observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — ancient light emitted shortly after the Big Bang.
Where were you born?
I was born in A Coruña, a city on the Atlantic coast of Galicia (Spain).
Where do you live now?
I live in Berkeley, California, in the ancestral and unceded land of the Ohlone people.
What do you do as part of DESI?
In my role as DESI-CMB topical group lead, I coordinate the joint analysis of the clustering of DESI galaxies together with the gravitational lensing distortions they imprint on background light from the CMB. These CMB lensing “cross-correlations” are very useful because they tell us a lot about the relationship between dark and luminous matter (i.e. DESI galaxies), which is a core and highly uncertain component of the models we use to extract cosmological information from observations. This analysis is now a key project of the DESI collaboration with the potential to reveal a lot about dark energy. It requires coordinated work from many people across several fronts: from optimizations of the theoretical model we use, to validations on simulations and tests against observational non-idealities. My role is to make sure that all these complementary efforts advance appropriately so that we can reach our final goal of testing the cosmological model and fundamental physics. My day-to-day entails a bit of everything: working on pen-and-paper calculations, writing and running computer code, reading and writing papers, giving talks, chairing meetings, mentoring students, discussing with collaborators, coordinating work on shared projects… and lots and lots of emails and Slack messages!
What is the most interesting or exciting thing about your job?
The progress we make towards big questions (like the nature of dark energy), and how we do it. Though the academic career can be stressful at times, science is a sort of utopia where you collaborate with people from a massive range of geographical, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds driven by the same shared curiosity.
Any advice for an aspiring scientist?
Take the time to properly learn and understand things, that’s often the key to creativity and innovation. Believe in your abilities and don’t underestimate them. Cultivate good relationships and be supportive of others around you. And be patient early on when getting up to speed in a new field: expertise comes with experience, and that takes time!
What do you do for fun?
I like being outdoors (mountaineering, hiking, surfing, playing soccer/football), reading, and many other small pleasures like sharing a meal with friends and family (I have been perfecting my Betanzos-style tortilla for years).
If you weren’t a scientist, what would be your dream job?
In theory there are a lot of occupations that I would enjoy, like being a mathematician, geologist, dancer, footballer, farmer, musician or a teacher. Unfortunately, I lack talent in all but a very small number of those disciplines. You can ask me which ones.
What excites/interests you most about DESI?
There are tons of interesting things about DESI, ranging from details about the instrument itself to the statistical analysis of the data. But surely the most exciting thing has to be what we get to do when we put it all together and learn about the nature of dark energy 🙂
