Juan Lois Fuentes, IGFAE graduate, awarded as the best PhD thesis in Experimental Nuclear Physics in Spain

The Nuclear Physics Specialized Group (GEFN) of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics (RSEF), together with the company ATI Sistemas, recently announced the results of the GEFN–ATI Sistemas Awards for the best doctoral theses and master’s final projects carried out between 2021 and 2023. These awards, which recognize academic and research excellence in the field of Nuclear Physics among young researchers, featured strong representation from IGFAE in the area of Experimental Nuclear Physics.

IGFAE graduate Juan Lois received the award for the best doctoral thesis, while PhD student David Palacios won the award for the best Master’s Final Project, and Beatriz Errandonea obtained a runner-up award in the same category.

Juan Lois, award for the best doctoral thesis

The thesis Complete spectroscopy of 16C and 20O with solid and active targets using transfer reactions, defended by Juan Lois at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) in July 2023, was recognized as the best in Spain in the category of Experimental Nuclear Physics. His research was supervised by Prof. Beatriz Fernández Domínguez (USC professor and IGFAE researcher) and Thomas Roger, researcher from the Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL). Juan is currently working as a postdoc at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a research center at Michigan State University (USA).

David Palacios and Beatriz Errandonea, PhD students at IGFAE, were recognized for their Master’s Final Projects.

David Palacios, award for the best Master’s Final Project

Also in the area of Experimental Nuclear Physics, in the category of Master’s Final Projects, IGFAE PhD David Palacios Suárez-Bustamante was recognized for his work Study of nuclear structure of 76,77Zn populated from β decay of 77Cu, carried out in the ISOLDE experiment at CERN and presented in September 2023 at the Complutense University of Madrid.

After graduating in Physics and completing his Master’s in Nuclear Physics, David joined IGFAE at the end of 2023, where he is currently pursuing his PhD thesis on the study of shape coexistence and clustering in exotic nuclei under the supervision of Yassid Ayyad (IGFAE) and Bruno Olaizola (CSIC).

Beatriz Errandonea, runner-up for the Master’s Final Project Award

In addition to these two distinctions, IGFAE doctoral student Beatriz Errandonea Félix received a runner-up award for her Master’s Final Project Analysis of the half-life of the neutron-rich exotic nucleus 54Ti and its beta decay to 54V through gamma spectroscopy, also presented in September 2023 at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Like David, Beatriz later joined IGFAE, where she is currently working on her PhD thesis focused on the study of the evolution of nuclear structure and fission dynamics using low-energy reactions, supervised by Manuel Caamaño Fresco (IGFAE) and Diego Ramos Doval (GANIL).