Team Members
The TITANS Nucleo project involves scientific and technological staff from four different Chilean Institutions: Universidad de Concepcion, Universidad de Chile, Universidad de Valparaiso, and the Universidad Adolfo Ibañez. The Chilean group consists of 7 professors, three postdocs (with three more to be hired with Nucleo funding), one engineer, five Ph.D. students, and approximately 20 Master's students. We have long term collaborations with several international groups, including the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. Four of our staff are members of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, and we are strongly involved in the next-generation upgrade to the EHT (ng-EHT).
Lead Investigators Senior Researchers Young Researchers Undergrad Students Technical Staff
Neil Nagar
Director
Neil Nagar obtained his Ph.D. at U. Maryland. He is full professor at U. de Concepcion, and a founding member of the EHT Collaboration. His work in TITANs will focus on observing a large sample of single and binary supermassive black holes with the EHT, in order to better understand demographics of the innermost structures of SMBHs, and to resolve more black hole shadows.
Universidad de Concepción
nagar (at) astro-udec.cl
Personal Webpage
Patricia Arevalo
Deputy Director
Patricia Arevalo obtained her Ph.D. at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet and Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Munich, and is currently an associate professor at U. Valparaiso. Her main research interests deal with accretion onto supermassive black holes and the study of the entire central engine - including the accretion disc, X-ray corona and molecular dusty absorber - of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), using X-ray and optical data. Within TITANs she will study the growth of black holes in the local universe and over cosmic time.
Universidad de Valparaiso
patricia.arevalo (at) uv.cl
Personal Webpage
Jorge Cuadra
Associate Researcher & Outreach Coordinator
Jorge Cuadra obtained his Ph.D. at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, Munich, in 2006 and is currently a full professor at Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Viña del Mar. His main research interests deal with simulating the inner environs of single and binary supermassive black holes. Within TITANs he will study the growth of single and binary black holes and their emission spectrum, thus constraining EHT detectability of individual systems.
Universidad Adolfo Ibañez
jorge.cuadra (at) uai.cl
Personal Webpage
Mary Loli Martinez Aldama
Associate Researcher & Diversity
Mary Loli obtained her PhD at UNAM, Mexico, in 2015. After postdoctoral positions in Spain, Poland, and Chile, she joined the University of Concepcion as an Assistant Professor in 2023. Within TITANs she will work on optical spectroscopy of AGN and quasars in order to identify AGN at the extreme ends of known parameter space.
Universidad de Concepción
mmartinez (at) astro-udec.cl
Personal Webpage
Paulina Lira
Associate Researcher & Science Council
Paulina Lira obtained her Ph.D. at U. of Edinburg, and is now full professor at U. de Chile. Her main area of research is Black Holes in Active Galaxies, specifically variability in their emission, from radio to X-rays. Within TITANs she will several tools, including eROSITA and SDSS-V, to constrain black hole mass, and thus growth, over cosmic time.
Universidad de Chile
plira (at) das.uchile.cl
Personal Webpage
Rodrigo Reeves
Associate Researcher & Technology
Rodrigo Reeves obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from U. de Concepcion, and is currently assistant professor at U. de Concepcion. Rodrigo works in research and development of leading technologies for their use in astronomy. He is the head of CePIA (Center for Astronomical Instrumentation) at UdeC, which develops astronomical instruments for cm to low-Terahertz radiofrequencies. Within TITANs he will lead site testing efforts for new ng-EHT telescopes, and the development of high bandwidth LEO satellite communication stations.
Universidad de Concepción
rreeves (at) astro-udec.cl
Personal Webpage
Nathan Leigh
Associate Researcher & Training
Nathan Leigh received his PhD from McMaster University, and is currently assistant professor at U. de Concepcion. Nathan works on classical (but unsolved) gravitational three- and four-body problems, black holes of all masses, and the formation, evolution and final fate of binary stars containing black holes in dense stellar systems.
Universidad de Concepción
nleigh (at) astro-udec.cl
Personal Webpage