Department: Astrofísica

Area: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Research group: Poblaciones estelares en galaxias

Email: antapaj@ull.edu.es

Personal web: https://research.iac.es/galerai/aaj

Área de Investigación: Ciencias

Doctor by the Universidad de Granada with the thesis Formación estelar en galaxias irregulares enanas próximas 1988. Supervised by Dr. José María Quintana González, Dr. José Manuel García-Pelayo Echevarria.

Born in Granada in 1960. Licenciado in Physics by the University of Granada in 1982, he got his PhD in the same university in 1988 with a thesis about the star formation in nearby dwarf galaxies. He is Catedrático (Full Professor) of Astrophysics at the University of La Laguna and researcher of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Presently, he is Vicerrector (Vice Chancellor) of Reseach and Transfer at the University of La Laguna. He has been Director General of Universities of the Government of Canarias in the period 2019-2020. He has been the director of the Department of Astrophysics of the University of La Laguna in two periods, from 2003 to 2005 and from 2014 to 2016. He has been also the Head of the Graduate Studies Division of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and member of the Direction Board of this institute during the same periods. He worked as a postdoc at the Department of Astronomy of the University of Padua in the period 1988 to 1990 and at the IAC, as support astronomer for the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes in the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (ORM), from 1990 to 1995. He won a position of Professor Titular (equivalent to Associate Professor in the USA system) at the Department of Astrophysics of the University of La Laguna in 1995. He worked as an invited researcher in The Carnegie Observatories, in Pasadena, California, from 1997 to 1998. He won the position of Full Professor in La Laguna in 2016. He has taught courses related to galactic, extragalactic and stellar astrophysics since 1992, mainly at the University of La Laguna. He has been invited professor at the University of Rome (Tor Vergata) from 2009 to 20012. He has given invited talks in several institutions and congresses in Europe, the United States, Canada, Mexico and New Zealand. He is member of the International Astronomical Union, the European Astronomical Society and the Spanish Astronomical Society. He has advised a total of 14 PhD theses, several of them with International or European mentions and/or being double theses with the universities of La Laguna, Rome (Tor Vergata) and/or Padua. He has been also the advisor of several Master Degree theses. His main scientific interests are the stellar populations in nearby galaxies and globular clusters. He has paid also attention to the search of exoplanets and to the interstellar medium in galaxies. He has created and developed a methodology for the accurate determination of the star formation history in stellar systems from the analysis of the resolved stellar populations: the so-called "IAC-method" and the core algorithm IAC-pop. This methodology is extensively used by the stellar populations research group at the IAC and other groups abroad. His research has produced a total of about 170 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, included in the Q1 of the JCR, as well as several invited reviews, with over 10,000 citations and an H factor over 60 (according to the NASA Astrophysics Data System database). He has been the PI of numerous research projects funded by the Spanish national plans of R+D, gathering researchers from different international institutions. He has been the PI of numerous observational projects using front-line observing facilities, including the HST, as well as a co-I of the two major HST observing projects for the study of Galactic globular clusters. He has been referee of many papers of the main international journals (ApJ, AJ, MNRAS and A&A), member of numerous panels for time assignment (including the ORM and ESO) and referee of several national and international research funding agencies. Besides his profesional main research and teaching, his is interested in History of Astronomy, Astronomy in the Culture and Philosophy. He has a Master in Philosophy by the University of La Laguna with a master thesis about the sacred time in traditional cultures.