https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4717-5102

Pablo Rodríguez-Gil is an Associate Professor (Profesor Titular) in the Department of Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna (ULL) and a senior researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). He is an astrophysicist specializing in the observational study of compact binary systems, with particular emphasis on accretion physics, white dwarf evolution, and the progenitor scenarios of thermonuclear Type Ia supernovae.

He obtained his degree in Physics (Astrophysics) from the University of La Laguna in 1997 and completed his PhD in Astrophysics in 2003, with a dissertation focused on the accretion structure of SW Sextantis-type cataclysmic variables. Following his doctoral work, he pursued postdoctoral research in the United Kingdom (University of Southampton, University of Warwick, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council), and later at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. He was a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow (2011–2017) and subsequently Profesor Contratado Doctor (tenured lecturer/researcher) at ULL.

He has undertaken invited research stays at leading international institutions, including an extended appointment as Visiting Scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA), as well as several invited scientific visits to the European Southern Observatory (ESO, Chile).

His research combines high-time-resolution spectroscopy and photometry with the use of major observational facilities (VLT, GTC, Gemini, among others). He has made landmark contributions to the study of SW Sextantis stars, demonstrating the regulatory role of magnetic fields in accretion onto white dwarfs; he has provided key dynamical constraints in binaries with orbital periods of 3–4 hours; and he has led the dynamical characterization of intermediate polars, obtaining robust white dwarf mass measurements and revealing fundamental discrepancies with X-ray spectral model estimates. In the field of ultracompact binaries, he has contributed to the identification and characterization of systems with minute-scale orbital periods dominated by gravitational-wave-driven mass transfer, several of which are candidate LISA-detectable sources. These studies have expanded the observational understanding of the most extreme regime of compact binary evolution and accretion physics under limiting conditions. In addition, his work on planetary debris and metal pollution in white dwarfs addresses the long-term survival and evolution of planetary systems beyond the red giant phase.

He has published 137 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, 95% of them in first-quartile (Q1) JCR journals, including publications in Nature and Science. His work has received more than 6,000 citations, and he holds an h-index of 45 (ADS, February 2026).

He has supervised three PhD theses (2008, 2022, and 2024) and numerous Master’s and undergraduate dissertations. In academic leadership, he served as Director of the Master’s Degree in Astrophysics at ULL (2018–2023) and is currently Director of the Department of Astrophysics (since 2025) and Director of Graduate Studies at the IAC. He also held scientific and technical management roles at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (La Palma), including Head of the Isaac Newton Telescope and Deputy Head of the William Herschel Telescope. He served as the official representative of the IAC on the Board of the New Robotic Telescope (NRT), participating in the strategic oversight and development of this next-generation 4-m robotic facility.

His main research lines are:

a) evolution and accretion physics in compact binaries containing white dwarfs;
b) dynamical mass determinations in magnetic and X-ray-emitting systems;
c) Type Ia supernova progenitors (double-degenerate channel);
d) evolved planetary systems around white dwarfs.

KEYWORDS: Astronomy and Astrophysics; compact binaries; cataclysmic variables; white dwarfs; accretion; Type Ia supernovae; high-time-resolution astrophysics; X-ray sources.