About me

I’m a theoretical physicist fascinated by how the most fundamental ingredients of nature organize themselves into the rich, collective structures we call matter. My research explores what happens when nuclear matter is pushed to extreme conditions in particle accelerator experiments such as in the Large Hadron Collider in CERN, Geneva, where a new state of matter, the Quark-Gluon Plasma has been found. By colliding nuclei of all sorts, these experiments create conditions similar to those found in the earliest instants after the Big Bang.

My job is then to use all sort of theoretical techniques, both analytical and numerical, to understand what we see in these experiments. To understand the physical mechanisms that drive the creation of the state of matter we call the Quark-Gluon Plasma, I use a wide range of frameworks to explore collective dynamics, such as Quantum Field Theory (and effective field theories), Relativistic Kinetic Theory, Relativistic Hydrodynamics, amongst others. To connect these ideas with experimental observables in heavy-ion collisions, I use phenomenological numerical simulations to describe the space–time evolution of high-energy nuclear collisions.

At heart, I’m driven by the question of how complexity emerges from simple laws: how quantum fields give rise to collective motion, and how matter behaves when it’s hot, dense, and far from equilibrium. Outside research, I enjoy communicating science through art and simple, and intuitive explanation, and hope to find creative ways to share the strange beauty of the quantum world.