Ignacio Ferreras
Stay at the IAC: 01/07/2014 to 28/07/2014.
Research line: Galactic Formation and Evolution
Dr. Ferreras is a Reader in Astrophysics at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London.
After obtaining university degrees in theoretical physics in Valladolid, Spain, and Cornell University, USA, he embarked on a career in astrophysics with a PhD in Cantabria, Spain, followed by various research and academic appointments at Oxford, ETH Zürich, University College London, and King’s College London. He was a 'La Caixa' fellow and an individual Marie Curie fellow.
His main area of research focuses on the understanding of galaxy formation and evolution through stellar populations. Detailed analyses of photometric and spectroscopic data are the main tools employed to understand processes such as the growth mechanism of massive galaxies and the onset of star formation quenching, the effect of environment on galaxy evolution, or the imprint of the early stages of formation on galactic chemical enrichment and the stellar initial mass function. Dr. Ferreras was a distinguished visitor of the Australian Astronomical Observatory and the University of Central Lancashire.
During his visit to the IAC he continued his collaboration with Dr. Ignacio Trujillo on the evolution of galaxies through photo/spectroscopic data, exploiting the GTC-based survey SHARDS (see Pablo G. Pérez González, another Severo Ochoa visitor this year), along with other publicly available surveys. SHARDS provides very deep low-resolution photo-spectra via medium band filters, allowing us to explore the stellar populations of galaxies down to AB~26.5. Dr. Ferreras continued the collaboration with Dr Trujillo on the evolution of massive galaxies at z<1, exploring the role of environment on the star formation histories, and also targeted a volume-limited sample of dwarf galaxies at intermediate redshift. He also worked with the stellar populations team led by Alejandro Vazdekis, to continue a research project focused on recent studies of the stellar Initial Mass Function based on gravity-sensitive spectral indices, and through a study of galactic chemical enrichment.
