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:

  • 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)
  • Dr. A. R. Plastino
    PROF. DR. ANGEL RICARDO PLASTINO (Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires - UNNOBA, Argentina)
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    Angel Ricardo Plastino is a professor in the Department of Basic Sciences at the Universidad Nacional del Noroeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (UNNOBA) and obtained his PhD degree in Astronomy in 1994 from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, both in Argentina. Prof. Plastino's main research interests focus on multidisciplinary applications of
  • Brian Welsch
    PROF. DR. BRIAN WELSCH (University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, USA)
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    Prof. Brian Welsch completed his Ph.D. thesis, “Magnetic Helicity Transport in the Quiet Sun,” in 2002, under the supervision of Prof. Dana W. Longcope. He subsequently started working for the University of California at Berkeley, at its Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) as a Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar, working under Dr. George H. Fisher. In 2004
  • Prof. Axel Brandenburg
    PROF. DR. AXEL BRANDENBURG (NORDITA, KTH Royal Institute of Technology & Stockholm University, Sweden)
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    Axel Brandenburg (born 1959) is a German astrophysicist. He completed his doctorate in astrophysics in 1990 at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Brandenburg works as a professor of Astrophysics at Nordita (Stockholm) and Stockholm Universities (2007–present). His main fields of research are in solar physics, with emphasis on dynamo theory and
  • Eva Villaver
    DR. EVA VILLAVER (CAB/CSIC-INTA, Spain)
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    Dr. Eva Villaver studies the influence of stars on their environment from two points of view: 1) the interaction with their surrounding interstellar medium in the form of winds, dust and chemical evolution and 2) the evolution of their planetary systems. The research work carried out by Dr. Villaver includes both theoretical and observational
  • Dr. Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin. Crédit: MIPSE
    DR. VYACHESLAV LUKIN (Division of Physics, National Science Foundation, USA.)
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    Dr. Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin received the BA in Physics and Mathematics from Swarthmore College and PhD in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton Univ. His PhD studies, split between Princeton University and Los Alamos National Laboratory, were supported by graduate fellowships administered by ORISE Fusion Energy Sciences program and the National