Severo Ochoa Programme

Occident Foundation visitors

Occident Foundation Logo1

The IAC has been chosen by the Occident Foundation to participate in its “Visiting Researchers Programme”. On 15 December 2022 the Agreement with the Occident Foundation for collaboration in the "Occident Foundation - Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias visiting researcher programme" was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) no. 300. This agreement involves the creation of a joint programme between the two entities for the period 2023-2025 with the aim of attracting visiting professors and researchers of outstanding international prestige to carry out short stays of one to three months at the IAC with the objective, on the one hand, of deepening the scientific relationship between the host research group and the visiting researcher's centre and, on the other, of initiating possible lines of joint action aimed at generating new scientific interests. 

In April 2023 an Addendum was made to modify the Agreement between the Occident Foundation and the IAC to include high-profile engineers as part of the visiting researcher programme. 

Each year, the programme supports stay of one - three months at the IAC for visiting professors, researchers of international prestige, and high-profile engineers. 

Within the framework of this mobility programme, the Severo Ochoa Coordination Committee (CCSO), in charge of the coordination, management and monitoring of the aforementioned agreement, proposed to the Occident Foundation a list of possible visiting researchers / professors / engineers for the year 2023, which was approved and has been implemented. 

The funding scheme offered by the Occident Foundation consists of: maximum funding of 3000 euros /month. This scheme will accommodate to the standard rules of the IAC for "Bolsas de Viaje para Visitantes". In any case diets to be claimed shall refer to those in force in national territory according to Royal Decree 462/2002. According to this Royal Decree, the visiting researcher with a longer stay of one month, could be reimbursed with up to 80% of the maximum per diem, i.e 2400 €/month for accommodation & subsistence, not being necessary invoices related to such concepts.

Since the Occident Foundation-IAC collaboration began in 2014, about 50 scientists have already participated in this programme.

Researchers who have visited the IAC under this programme -or will visit it in the near future- are listed below:

  • Vanessa Hill
    DR. VANESSA HILL (CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Laboratoire Lagrange, Nice, France)
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    Dr. Vanessa Hill is Directrice de Recherche (Senior Researcher) at CNRS, at the Laboratoire Lagrange, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, France. She obtained her PhD in 1997 with a PhD dissertation on the "Chemical Evolution of the Magellanic Clouds" ("Evolution Chimique des Nuages de Magellan"). She then carried out a short postdoctoral
  • DR. SANTI CASSISI
    DR. SANTI CASSISI (INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico d'Abruzzo, Italy)
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    Dr. Santi Cassisi is a world-recognized expert in stellar evolution, and main creator and maintainer of the widely used BaSTI stellar evolution library. Stellar evolution is basic for many research lines, therefore his contributions to the IAC can span over the FEEI, MWLG, and FEYG SO lines. He began his career with a Grant of the Ministry for
  • Dr Henri Boffin
    DR. HENRI BOFFIN (European Southern Observatory - ESO, Germany)
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    Dr. Henri Boffin is an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany. He obtained his PhD from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, in 1993. After a post-doc in Kobe, Japan, and in Cardiff, UK, he was appointed astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in 1998. As he is very keen to share science with
  • Cristina Chiappini
    DR. CRISTINA CHIAPPINI (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, AIP, Germany)
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    Dr. Cristina Chiappini received her PhD in 1998 at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. After a postdoctoral position at Columbia University, she obtained a permanent position at Observatory of Trieste (INAF) where was tenured in 2003. In 2005 she moved to the University of Geneva as a Maitre Assistant and from there to a permanent position at AIP
  • Dra. Minia Manteiga Outeiro
    PROF. DR. MINIA MANTEIGA OUTEIRO (Universidad de A Coruña, Spain)
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    Dr. Minia Manteiga graduated in Physics from the University of La Laguna in 1986. That year she obtained a contract as Resident Astrophysicist at the IAC (Tenerife), where she completed her doctoral thesis. In 1990 she was an FPI postdoctoral fellow for two years at the Istituto di Astrofísica Spaziale, (IAS, Frascati, Italy), working on late-stage
  • Dra. Evanthia Hatziminaoglou
    DRA. EVANTHIA HATZIMINAOGLOU (European Southern Observatory - ESO, Alemania)
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    Dr Evanthia Hatziminaoglou is a senior astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching, Germany, an expert in operations of large astronomical structures, director of the ALMA Regional Centre (ARC; 2022 - 2024), former deputy head of the ARC (2019 - 2022), and former coordinator of the European ARC user support network (2014-2020)