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:

  • 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
  • Faith Vila
    DR. FAITH VILAS (Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, USA)
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    Dr. Faith Vilas is an American planetary scientist and Director of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory in Arizona. Vilas earned her BA in Astronomy at Wellesley College and her MS in Astronomy at MIT. She completed her Doctoral degree at the University of Arizona. Vilas was a scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) from 1985 through 2005
  • Norbert Langer
    PROF. DR. NORBERT LANGER (Bonn University, Germany)
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    Prof. Norbert Langer has been one of the world’s leading experts in the field of theoretical Astrophysics for more than three decades. He investigates the evolution of high mass stars up to the point when they explode as supernovae. Born 1958, he studied in Göttingen, where he completed his doctorate in 1986. In the same year, Langer became the
  • Sebastián Sánchez
    Dr. SEBASTIÁN SÁNCHEZ SÁNCHEZ (UNAM, Instituto de Astronomía, México)
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    Dr. Sebastián Sánchez, born in Badajoz (Spain), naturalised Mexican, studied a degree in Physics from the University of Salamanca (1995) and PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Cantabria (2001), both in Spain. He has worked at the observatories of La Palma (2001) and Calar Alto (2004-2010, where he was resident astronomer and coordinator of
  • Diego Blas
    PROF. DR. DIEGO BLAS TEMIÑO (King’s College London, UK)
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    Dr. Diego Blas obtained his PhD in Physics in the University of Barcelona (Spain) in 2008. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Shaposhnikov at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne till 2011. After a short research period in New York University, he moved to the Theory Division of CERN as a fellow in early 2012. He became a