Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE)

The Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE) was founded in 1991 by a consortium of the Government of Catalonia and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). IFAE has two main divisions, experimental and theory, which develop frontier research in Fundamental Physics, and a third division developing Applied Physics.

The Institute is placed in the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) Campus and it is a member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST). IFAE is involved in international experiments like the ATLAS project at the LHC, the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan, the MAGIC telescopes in La Palma and the Dark Energy Survey project in Chile, among others. IFAE also work at the cutting edge of detector technology developing new instrumentation like telescope cameras and detectors for medical imaging. Our center is involved in different outreach activities and also promotes initiatives such as the education web app “Gamma Ray Hunters”.

www.ifae.es

Excellence and recognition awards

In 2016: joined the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
In 2013 and 2016: awarded with the “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” seal by the Ministry of Research, Development and Innovation of Spain.
In 2013: awarded with the “Human Resources Excellence in Research” seal from the European Commission.

Ranking positioning

From 2012 to 2016: H-index value 114

Director of the center

Ramon Miquel

Degree in Physics by University of Barcelona (UB)
PhD in experimental high-energy physics by University Autonomous of Barcelona
Post-doctoral stay at CERN, Geneva
Professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) at IFAE
Working mostly in the US-led "Dark Energy Survey" (DES) and IFAE-led "Physics of the Accelerated Universe" (PAU) projects, being the PI in both. Both projects try to shed light into the nature of the "dark energy" that is causing the current acceleration of the expansion of the Universe.

Renowned researcher

Martine Bosman

PhD in experimental nuclear physics at the cyclotron of Louvain-La-Neuve - Belgium.
Granted with a research fellowship at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) - Geneva, Switzerland.
Participation in experiments at the CERN SPS proton accelerator, the electron-positron collider (PEP) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre (SLAC) the LEP electron-positron collider at CERN and the ATLAS detector at the LHC.
Chair of the ATLAS Collaboration Board.
Award of the “Narcís Monturiol” seal to scientific and technological merit by the Government of Catalonia.

The project

Cosmic rays' detection: astrophysics at your fingertips

Cosmic rays are particles that are constantly bombarding the Earth. We do not know for sure where they come from, but we know that when they reach the atmosphere they produce a large number of particles. Some of them can be detected. Some of them are muons. But... what are muons? How can we detect them? What can we learn about cosmic rays from them? What else can we use a muon detector for?

More about the project