Octavi Fors Aldrich

Professor Associat

Scopus Author ID: 6602301540

Researcher ID: H-5368-2018

Àrea de coneixement : Física Teòrica

Grup de Recerca: Astrophysics and Galaxy Formation

Informació de contacte
Departament de Física Quàntica i Astrofísica
Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB) Universitat de Barcelona, IEEC-UB Martí i Franqués 1
934039234
octavifors(a)icc.ub.edu

El meu perfil

Octavi Fors graduated in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 1996. In 1997, he enrolled Observatori Fabra/Reial Academia de Ciencies i Arts de Barcelona (OF/RACAB) as a predoctoral fellow, and he obtained a MSc degree in Remote Sensing at the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). In 1998, he was awarded a MEC-FPU predoctoral fellowship at the Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, UB (DAM/UB). During this training period, he enjoyed several-month research stays at Yale (3) and ESO (1) studying astrometry, image deconvolution and lunar occultations (LO). In 2001, he got a permanent position at UB Information Technology Service (ATIC). In 2006, he obtained a PhD degree in Physics at the UB with 'Cum Laude'. His PhD research, supervised by Professor Jorge Núñez de Murga (DAM/UB), focused on measuring stellar diameters and very close binaries with CCDs and NIR arrays by means of LO, and developing a new wavelet-based image deconvolution algorithm for the improvement of the astrometric accuracy of CCD images. Among his accomplishments, the design and implementation of a wavelet-based algorithm to automatic analyze LO light curves, and the compilation of >1000 ~1 milliarcsecond unresolved NIR sources to be calibrators for NIR interferometers, such as the VLTI. As a result of his PhD thesis, 14 Q1 articles were published (3 of them as first author). While pursuing his PhD, he also actively contributed in 2 other research areas:a) development of wavelet-based image fusion algorithms for remote sensing data, yielding 7 published Q1 articles, b) leading the project of refurbishment and robotization of the wide-field Telescope Fabra-ROA Montsec (TFRM), also published in a Q1 paper. After his PhD, he got involved in 7 postdoctoral stages: 2x2yrs total at the OF/RACAB, 3yrs at the DAM/UB as 'Juan de la Cierva' postdoctoral fellow, several months as a Research Scientist at the Qatar Foundation (Qatar), 4yrs as a postdoctoral research associate at the Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), 4 months as a 'María de Maeztu' postdoctoral fellow at the Institut de Ciències del Cosmos, UB (ICCUB), and 2 months as a postdoctoral fellow at the Departament de Fisica Quàntica i Astrofísica, UB (FQA/UB). He was invited as a visitor scientist at Yale, ESO (2), NAOJ and NARIT (3). During these stages he focused in 3 research areas. First, to design, build and maximize the science drivers behind four wide-field telescopes: TFRM, Qatar Exoplanet Survey, Evryscope South at CTIO, and Evryscope North at Mt.Laguna. Second, to be deeply involved in the pipeline development for TFRM and Evryscope South. And last, to mostly focus his science goals in exoplanetary science. He worked on identifying photometric stellar activity from long-term photometric series, studying flaring stars, and detecting new planets from space missions data sets (Kepler, K2, TESS and CHEOPS). Recently, he consolidated the research in stellar activity and flares - by adding UV band from PhotSat, GNSS-Astronomy and nanoflares from CHEOPS – and, also his LO from Earth-Moon L4/L5 (LO@L4 CubeSat). Moreover, he opened new research lines such as sub-second space-debris glints with Machine Learning and Astrobiology. He advisored 5 BSc theses and 10 MSc theses (5 in Exoplanetary Science, 4 in Computer Science & AI and 1 in Aerospace Science & Technology). He advisored one PhD thesis in Exoplanetary Science, already defensed at the UB, and is co-advisoring another PhD thesis at UB. He is now assistant professor at the FQA/UB, and member of the ICCUB and the IEEC - info

Formació acadèmica

Llicenciat en Ciències Físiques . Universitat de Barcelona . 06/09/1996 . (Diplomatura / Llicenciatura / Grau)

Màster en Teledecció i Sistemes d'Informació Geogràfica . Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) . 01/07/1998 . (Formació Especialitzada)

New observational techniques and analysis tools for wide field CCD surveys and high resolution astro . Universitat de Barcelona . 07/03/2006 . (Doctorat )

Docència Impartida

Astronomia (Grau) - Física - Universidad de Barcelona.

Àlgebra Lineal i Geometria (Grau) - Física - Universidad de Barcelona.

Càlcul d'una Variable (Grau) - Física - Universidad de Barcelona.

Astronomia Observacional. Licenciatura de Física (Grau) - Física - Universidad de Barcelona.

Línies de recerca

Descobriment i caracterizació d'exoplanetes transitants de tamany terrestre (o menor) orbitant estrelles de tipus GKM amb dades Kepler, K2, TESS i CHEOPS

Astrodinámica. Cens de brossa espacial. Megaconstelations satelitals, flashos orbitals de sub-segon i el seu impacte en surveys de transients astrofisics

Estudi òptic i UV de (super - nano)fulguracions d'estrelles de tipus GKM, i les seves implicacions en l'habitabilitat en els exoplanetes orbitants

Tesis, Tesines i Treballs de Recerca dirigits

Ayyash Sala, D . (2022) . CNN-based detection and classification of UV-radiation solar and extrasolar flares (Tesi de Masters) . Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Diposit Digital UPC (http://hdl.handle.net/2117/386398)

Elisabet Ejarque Gonzalez . (2023) . Extracció atmosfèrica dels exoplanetes de la missió Ariel utilitzant mètodes de conjunt basats en arbres de decisió (Tesi de Masters) . Universitat Oberta de Catalunya. Repositori institucional de la UOC (http://hdl.handle.net/10609/148790)

Gerard Massip Gil . (2023) . Searching for evidence of stellar cycles by using variations in flares rate (Treball de Grau) . Universidad de Barcelona. Publicat al Diposit Digital UB (http://hdl.handle.net/2445/201242)

A.R. Medina Baca . (2023) . Rethinking Stella: comparativa de redes neuronales convolucionales para la clasificación de fulguraciones estelares en curvas de luz de la misión TESS (Tesi de Masters) . Universidad Internacional de la Rioja. Diposit Digital UNIR (https://reunir.unir.net/handle/123456789/14937)

Pérez Sanjuán, A . (2022) . Aprendizaje Automático aplicado a la identificación y clasificación de curvas de luz Kepler (Tesi de Masters) . Universidad Internacional de la Rioja.

Participació en Projectes

Fuentes de alta energia con flujos a diferentes escalas: teoría y observaciones . 2020 - 2023 . Ref.PID2019-105510GB-C31 . Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades . IP: Josep Maria Paredes Poy; Valenti Bosch i Ramon

GNSS-Astronomy: Characterization of EUV stellar superflares detection and first multi-GNSS test bed . 2020 - 2022 . Ref.4000133257/20/NL/GLC . ESA . IP: Manuel Hernández-Pajares

CAREER: Evryscope Science: Realizing the Potential of the First Full-Sky Gigapixel-Scale Telescope . 2016 - 2021 . Ref.1555175 . NSF (USA) . IP: Nicholas Law

The Evryscope: the first full-sky gigapixel-scale telescope . 2014 - 2016 . Ref.1407589 . NSF (USA) . IP: Nicholas Law

Monitoring Extrasolar Space Weather with the LWA and Evryscope . 2015 - 2016 . Ref.7871039 . Research Corporation for Science Advancement . IP: Nicholas Law, Gregg Hallinan

Science and technology for the Ariel mission: IEEC contribution . 2022 - 2025 . Ref.PID2021-125627OB-C31 . Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) . IP: Ignasi Ribas Canudas; Jose Maria Gomez Cama

Publicacions en revistes

Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; Corbett, Henry T.; Howard, Ward S.; del Ser, Daniel; Haislip, Joshua (2019). Building the Evryscope: Hardware Design and Performance. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 131(1001) . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 0004-6280

Howard, Ward S.; Tilley, Matt A.; Corbett, Hank; Youngblood, Allison; Loyd, R. O. Parke; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K.; Law, Nicholas M.; Fors, Octavi; del Ser, Daniel; Shkolnik, Evgenya L.; Ziegler, Carl; Goeke, Erin E.; Pietraallo, Aaron D.; Haislip, Joshua (2018). The First Naked-eye Superflare Detected from Proxima Centauri. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 860(2), pp. 1 - 6 . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 2041-8205

Fors, O.; Núñez, J.; Muiños, J.L.; Montojo, F.J.; Baena, R.; Boloix, J.; López-Morcillo, R.; Merino, M.T.; Downey, E.; Mazur, M.J. (2013). Telescope Fabra ROA Montsec: a new robotic wide-field Baker-Nunn facility. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 125(927), pp. 522 - 528 . Repositori Institucional . ISSN: 0004-6280

Corbett, H.; Law, N.M.; Soto, A.V.; Howard, W.S.; Glazier, A.; Gonzalez, R.; Ratzloff, J.K.; Galliher, N.; Fors, O.; Quimby, R. (2020). Orbital foregrounds for ultra-short duration transients. Astrophysical Journal Letters, 903(2), pp. L27 - L33 . https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abbee5 . ISSN: 2041-8205

del Ser, Daniel ; Fors, Octavi ; del Alcázar, Marc ; Dyachenko, Vladimir ; Horch, Elliott P. ; Tokovinin, Andrei ; Ziegler, Carl ; van Belle, Gerard T. ; Clark, Catherine A. ; Hartman, Zachary D. (2022). TFAW survey II: six newly validated planets and 13 planet candidates from K2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 518(1), pp. 669 - 690 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3087 . ISSN: 0035-8711

Corbett, Hank ; Carney, Jonathan ; Gonzalez, Ramses ; Fors, Octavi ; Galliher, Nathan ; Glazier, Amy ; Howard, Ward S ; Law, Nicholas M.; Quimby, Robert ; Ratzloff, Jeffrey K. ; Vasquez Soto, Alan (2023). The Evryscope Fast Transient Engine: Real-time Detection for Rapidly Evolving Transients. Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 265(2), pp. 63 - 86 . https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/acbd41 . ISSN: 0067-0049