cv

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

General Information

Full Name Santiago Casas
Date of Birth 20th July 1987
Languages Spanish (native), English (C2-proficiency), German (second-language), French (B1), Portuguese (A2)

Education

  • 2017
    PhD in Theoretical Cosmology
    University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP), Philosophenweg 12
    • Summa Cum Laude , Grade 1.0 with honors
    • Supervisors
      • Prof. Valeria Pettorino
      • Prof. Luca Amendola
    • Topics
      • Non-linear structure formation in models of Dark Energy and Modified Gravity
      • Bayesian statistics, Fisher Information Matrix, Cosmological Parameter Estimation
      • Work for the Euclid Consortium, Theory Science Working Group
      • Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing
  • 2013
    Master of Science in Physics
    University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
    • Grade 1.2
    • Master thesis topic: Fitting and forecasting models of Coupled Dark Energy based on N-body simulations
    • Focus area in Theoretical Physics, General Relativity and Quantum Field Theory
    • Supervisors
      • Prof. Luca Amendola
      • Dr. Marco Baldi
  • 2010
    Bachelor of Science in Physics
    Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
    • Bachelor research project at the section of Theoretical Physics on Geometrical Methods for Gravity
    • Assistant at the Section for Theoretical Physics
    • Assistant at the University Planetarium

Experience

  • 2021-2023
    Postdoctoral Researcher
    Theoretische Teilchenphysik und Kosmologie (TTK), RWTH University, Aachen, Germany
    • Research in cosmological parameter estimation and likelihoods
    • Fisher and MCMC forecasting for Euclid and other probes in LCDM and neutrino cosmology
    • Modified Gravity modelling at non-linear scales
    • Machine Learning emulators
    • Code development for CosmicFishPie, MontePython, CLASS and the Euclid CLOE likelihood
    • Teaching Assistant
      • General Relativity
      • Ingredients of the Universe (Advanced Cosmology)
      • Theoretical Mechanics, Bachelor level (in German)
      • Electromagnetism, Bachelor level (in German)
    • Master Student supervision
      • Sabarish V.M., 2021-2022, topic: Validation of MontePython Euclid likelihoods and CosmicFish Fisher matrices
      • Dennis Linde, 2021-2022, topic: 1-loop EFTofLSS implementation into CLASS
      • Sefa Pamuk, 2022-2023, topic: MontePython likelihoods and CosmicFish Fisher Matrices for neutrino parameters
      • Christian Rademacher, 2022-2023, topic: MCMC forecasts and validation against simulations of the CLASS 1-loop code
      • Kostas Revis, 2022-2023, topic: Correlation of Dark Sirens and Euclid Galaxy Clustering
    • Bachelor Student supervision
      • Yun Ling, 2023, topic: Fisher matrices with the Python N-body code CONCEPT for neutrino cosmology
      • Jakob Kramp, 2022, topic: Autodifferentiable Variational Inference for Supernova Cosmology
  • 2018-2021
    (Euclid) Postdoctoral Researcher
    Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA Paris-Saclay), Department of Astrophysics, CosmoStat Lab
    • Research in cosmological parameter estimation and likelihoods
    • Fisher and MCMC forecasting for Euclid and other probes
    • Modified Gravity modelling at non-linear scales
    • Inflation and CMB
    • Machine Learning emulators, Optimal Transport, Dictionary Learning
    • Code development for CosmicFishPie, Euclid CLOE likelihood and IST:Forcasting
    • Internship supervisor
      • Senwen Dang, forecasts for alpha-attractor models
      • Raphael Baena, machine learning emulators
    • Course instructor
      • Python, Numpy and Scipy for scientists
      • Einstein Boltzmann solvers in docker
  • 2010-2011
    Physics Lecturer
    Universidad de Costa Rica
    • Physics Lecturer for General Physics 1, 2 and Physics for Life Sciences
  • 2009-2010
    Physicist and Programmer
    Engineering Scientific Services (ESS), San José
    • Code development of finite element methods for engineering solutions

Open Source Projects

  • 2020-now
    Contributor to jax cosmo
    • A differentiable cosmology library in JAX
  • 2019-now
    cosmicfishpie
    • Fisher matrix code and Cosmological Theory modelling for Galaxy Clustering. Weak Lensing, Intensity Mapping, CMB and their cross-correlations
  • 2018-now
    looti
    • Emulator for cosmological quantities, using Gaussian Processes, PCA and Dictionary Learning
  • 2014-2020
    cosmomathica
    • Wolfram Mathematica wrapper for cosmological Einstein-Boltzmann-Solvers, non-linear prescriptions and background equations. Together with fishermathica providing a toolkit for general Fisher Matrix forecasting with different cosmological surveys.

Honors and Awards

  • 2019
    • Euclid STAR prize for best team, IST:Forecasting Presented prize award talk at the EC Meeting in Helsinki
  • 2011
    • MICIT (Ministry of Science and Technology of Costa Rica) scholarship for Master studies abroad
  • 2010
    • Laboratorio Nacional de Luz Sincrotron (LNLS) Scholarship for a summer internship, Campinas, Brazil.

Academic Interests

  • Dark Energy and Modified Gravity
    • Scalar-tensor theories of gravity such as f(R), Coupled Quintessence, Brans-Dicke
    • Horndeski scalar-tensor theory
    • Screening mechanisms for scalar-tensor theories, such as Chameleons, Vainshtein, etc.
    • Parametrized deviations of General Relativity, with \mu, \Sigma parameters
    • Effective Field Theory of Dark Energy
  • Large Scale Structure
    • Galaxy Clustering, BAO, Redshift Space Distortions
    • Effective Field Theory of LSS. 1-loop perturbation theory using FFTLog
    • Weak Lensing, Cosmic Shear and the 3x2pt correlation function
  • Galaxy Surveys and Cosmological Observations
    • ESA's Euclid space satellite mission, EC consortium member, Builder status
    • SKAO (Square-Kilometer-Array-Observatory), radio-cosmology, Cosmology SWG member
    • Stage-IV Cosmic Microwave Experiments for Temperature and Polarization
    • DESI, Vera Rubin Observatory (LSST survey)
    • Gravitational Waves Dark Sirens in correlation with Galaxy Surveys
  • Bayesian statistics and Machine Learning
    • Fisher information matrix
    • Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo parameter estimation
    • Cosmological Likelihoods
    • Variational inference
    • Hamilton-Monte-Carlo techniques
    • Differentiable probabilistic programming
    • Gaussian Processes
    • PCA
  • Computational physics and cosmology
    • N-body simulatons, runs, and post-processing
    • Einstein-Boltzmann-Solvers (CAMB in Fortran, CLASS in C)
    • Modified Gravity Einstein-Boltzmann Solvers
    • Differentiable likelihoods in JAX
    • ML-based Emulators for cosmological quantities
    • Python code development, High-performance computing, Optimization problems

Other interests

  • Salsa dancing
  • Trumpet playing
  • Hosting Podcasts (Podcastination on all major platforms)
  • Photography
  • YouTuber (9M views)
  • Economics
  • Blockchain
  • Skiing