David Barrado appointed as new Director of the German-Spanish Astronomical Centre

The Spanish astronomer David Barrado was appointed as Director of the German-Spanish Astronomical Centre (CAHA, usually known as Calar Alto Observatory) in March the 20th 2010.

David Barrado was born in Madrid in 1968. He got his degree in Physics at the Complutense University of Madrid. The research that led to his PhD dissertation was begun at the same university, but was finished at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge (USA). After that, he devoted several years as a post-doc researcher at several institutions in USA, Germany and Spain. He worked at the European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) as part of the Spanish National Institute for Aerospace Technique (INTA), where he was the head during the last two years and also the INTA Principal Investigator and National Project Manager for the Spanish collaboration within MIRI, the mid-infrared instrument on board of the next space telescope, JWST. Lately he has been working as permanent staff at the Spanish Centre for Astrobiology (CAB), a joint institution of the Spanish space agency (INTA) and the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).

His research topics focus on the search and characterization of substellar objects, and on the properties of stars in open clusters. From a more general perspective, he has specialized in stellar and planetary system formation, using different observational techniques: from optical to far infrared, imaging and spectroscopy, ground-based and space-borne telescopes. All this observational effort has produced close to 100 articles in well-know scientific journals.

David Barrado is not a newcomer at Calar Alto Observatory, where he is well-known as one of the most enthusiastic users of CAHA observational facilities. He has been, too, a member of the Time Allocation Committee for CAHA.

David Barrado arrives to Calar Alto “happy to share with CAHA staff a profesional adventure, and help to make the Observatory an even more competitive facility in the international arena in the years to come”.