cv

My curriculum vitae, with personal and professional experience, skills and education track.

Contact Information

Name Santiago Casas
Professional Title Theoretical Cosmologist and Astrophysicist
Email s.casas@protonmail.com
Location Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Website https://santiagocasas.github.io

Professional Summary

Theoretical cosmologist working on dark energy, modified gravity, large-scale structure, Bayesian inference, and survey synergies for Euclid and SKAO.

Experience

  • 2024 - Present
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    University of Portsmouth
    Euclid research scientist with builder status, co-leading likelihood work in the Theory Working Group and coordinating pre-launch key project work.
    • Euclid Builder and Theory Working Group leader
    • SKAO synergies and cosmology science book chapter coordinator
  • 2019 - Present
    Founding Member and Mentor
    Alpha-Cen
    Mentoring network supporting students and researchers in Central America and the Caribbean.
    • Community mentoring
    • Remote webinars and outreach
  • 2021 - 2024
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    RWTH Aachen University
    Worked on theoretical, phenomenological, and numerical cosmology with emphasis on likelihoods, neutrinos, modified gravity, and effective field theory for large-scale structure.
    • Supervised master and bachelor students
    • Developed and validated cosmology software including CLOE, MontePython, CosmicFish, CLASS-1loop, and JaxCosmo
  • 2018 - 2021
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    CEA Paris-Saclay
    Worked on Euclid-related cosmology forecasts, likelihoods, modified gravity, 21 cm cosmology, and machine-learning emulators.
    • Supervised interns and taught scientific Python courses
    • Contributed to CLOE, CosmicFish, and JaxCosmo
  • 2010 - 2011
    Physics Lecturer
    Universidad de Costa Rica
    Lectured General Physics and laboratory courses for physics and life-science students.
  • 2009 - 2010
    Physicist and Software Developer
    Engineering Scientific Services
    Developed finite-element methods in Objective-C for engineering applications.

Education

  • 2013 - 2017

    Heidelberg, Germany

    PhD
    Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg
    Theoretical Physics
    • Dark energy and modified gravity
    • Non-linear structure formation
    • Bayesian statistics and Fisher forecasting
  • 2011 - 2013

    Heidelberg, Germany

    MSc
    Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg
    Physics
    • Theoretical physics
    • Coupled dark energy forecasts
  • 2006 - 2009

    San Jose, Costa Rica

    BSc
    University of Costa Rica
    Physics

Awards

  • 2024
    Euclid STAR Prize IDEA
    Euclid Consortium

    STAR prize for the ECI IST Forecasting team, presented in Rome.

  • 2019
    Euclid STAR Prize
    Euclid Consortium

    Best team award for IST Forecasting, presented in Helsinki.

  • 2011
    MICIT Scholarship
    Ministry of Science and Technology of Costa Rica

    Scholarship supporting master’s studies abroad.

Skills

Cosmology (Expert): Dark energy, Modified gravity, Large-scale structure, Weak lensing, Galaxy clustering
Statistics and Inference (Expert): Bayesian statistics, Fisher matrices, MCMC, Likelihoods, Variational inference
Scientific Computing (Advanced): Python, JAX, High-performance computing, Gaussian processes, Differentiable programming

Languages

Spanish : Native
English : C2
German : C2
French : B1
Portuguese : A2

Interests

Research: Euclid, SKAO, Dark universe, Survey synergies
Community and Outreach: Mentoring, Podcasting, Science communication
Personal: Photography, Salsa dancing, Trumpet, Skiing, Chess

Projects

  • 2019 - Present
    cosmicfishpie

    Fisher-matrix and cosmological-theory toolkit for galaxy clustering, weak lensing, intensity mapping, CMB, and cross-correlations.

    • Forecasting cosmological observables
    • Open-source scientific software
  • 2018 - Present
    looti

    Machine-learning emulator for cosmological quantities using Gaussian processes, PCA, and dictionary learning.

    • Emulation
    • Cosmological inference
  • 2014 - 2020
    cosmomathica

    Wolfram Mathematica wrapper around Einstein-Boltzmann solvers and non-linear cosmology tools.

    • CAMB and CLASS workflows
    • Forecasting support

References

  • Prof. Valeria Pettorino

    Academic reference listed in CV.

  • Prof. Martin Kunz

    Academic reference listed in CV.

  • Prof. Luca Amendola

    Academic reference listed in CV.