Octavi Fors got graduated in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 1996, specializing in the field of Astrophysics. In 1997, he enrolled Observatori Fabra de Barcelona/Reial Academia de Ciencies i Arts de Barcelona (OFB/RACAB) as a pre-doctoral fellow. The same year he obtained a MSc degree in Remote Sensing at the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC). In 1998, he was awarded with a MEC-FPU pre-doctoral fellowship at the Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona (DAM/UB). During this training period, he enjoyed several-month research stays at Yale (three) and ESO (one) studying ways to improve astrometry with image deconvolution and lunar occultations, respectively. In 2001, he got a permanent position at UB Information Technology Service (ITS or ATIC). In 2006, he obtained a PhD degree in Physics at the Universitat de Barcelona with the highest qualification ('Cum Laude'). His PhD research, supervised by Professor
Jorge Núñez de Murga (DAM/UB), focused on the direct measurement of stellar diameters
and very close binaries separation with CCD and NIR lunar occultations, and the
development of a wavelet-based image deconvolution algorithm for the improvement
of the astrometric accuracy of several CCD image archives. Among his accomplishments,
the design and implementation of a wavelet-based algorithm for automatically analyzing
lunar occultations light curves, compilation of ~1 milliarcsecond unresolved NIR
sources very useful to be used as calibrators by NIR interferometers, such as the VLTI.
As a result of his PhD thesis, 14 articles were published in international Q1 peer review
journals (three of them as first author). While pursuing his PhD, he also actively
contributed in other two research areas:
-depelopment of wavelet-based image fusion algorithms applied to remote sensing data,
which yielded to the publication of seven articles in international Q1 peer reviewed journals,
-leading the project of the refurbishment and robotization of the wide-field Telescope
Fabra-ROA Montsec (TFRM), which was also published in an international Q1 peer review journal.
After his PhD, he got involved in seven postdoctoral stages: 4yrs total at the OF/RACAB,
3 yrs at the DAM/UB as 'Juan de la Cierva' postdoctoral fellow, several months as a
Research Scientist at the Qatar Foundation (Qatar), 4 yrs as a postdoctoral research
associate at the Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill (NC, USA), six months as a 'María de Maeztu' postdoctoral fellow at
the Institut de Ciencies del Cosmos, Universitat de Barcelona (ICCUB), and two months
as a postdoctoral research associate at the Departament de Fisica Quantica i Astrofisica,
Universitat de Barcelona (FQA/UB).
During that period he also was invited as a visitor scientist at prestigious universities
and observatories, such as, Yale, ESO (twice), NAOJ, and NARIT (three times).
During these stages he focused in three research areas. First, he contributed to
design, build and maximize the science drivers behind four wide-field telescopes:
the TFRM, the Qatar Exoplanet Survey, the Evryscope South at CTIO, and the Evryscope
North at Mt.Laguna. Second, he was deeply involved in the pipeline development for
TFRM and Evryscope South. And last, but not least, he mostly focused his science
goals in exoplanetary science. Among them, he worked and/or contributed in identifying
photometric stellar activity from long-term photometric series, studying flaring stars,
detecting and validating new Jupiter to sub-Earth-sized planets in space missions data sets
(Kepler, K2, TESS and CHEOPS).
The varied work during these stages implied a total of numerous published international Q1
peer reviewed articles, in journals as ApJL, ApJ, AJ, JATIS, A&A, MNRAS, and PASP.
He has been advisor of nine MSc theses: four in Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence: one at Politecnic University of Catalonia, one at Autonomous University of Barcelona, one at University of Girona, and one at International University of La Rioja, and five in Exoplanetary Science, three at the University of Barcelona, and two at the International University of Valencia. He also has been advisor of one PhD thesis in Exoplanetary Science, which was defensed at the University of Barcelona.
He is now assistant professor at the FQA/UB, and member of the ICCUB and the IEEC.
