Research News

Juan Gancio defended his thesis co-directed by Cristina Masoller and Giulio Tirabassi on July 30 at the Terrassa Campus. Titled "Characterizing and detecting changes in complex multidimensional data with permutation entropy". The thesis analyzes the ability of permutation entropy-based measures to detect changes and characterize complex data in three interdisciplinary areas: data generated by highly multimode lasers, climatological data and electroencephalogram (EEG) signals.

An international team of researchers from UPC in Barcelona and the University of Queensland in Brisbane has developed a new theory to explain how microscopic thermal excitations determine the temperature dependence of collective oscillations in bosonic particles confined to one spatial dimension

Edgar Alvarez Galera defended his thesis co-directed by Jordi Martí Rabassa and Lluís Batet Miracle on July 22 at the North Campus. The thesis, with the title “Helium nucleation in liquid alkali metals and lead-lithium alloys”, the work offers an atomistic and computational analysis of the nucleation of helium generated in tritium production reactions by neutron bombardment of lithium isotopes. The research allows evaluating several interaction models by studying critical parameters such as solubility (Henry’s constants) and interfacial tension between the spherical phases of segregated helium and different liquid metals

Nil Carrion Bertran presented his doctoral Thesis, supervised by Francesca Ribas and Daniel Calvete at Campus Nord on June 19, 2026. The thesis entitled “Influence of topobathymetric and offshore forcing uncertainties on beach morphodynamic predictability” investigates how uncertainties in coastal morphology and offshore forcing affect the reliability of numerical modelling predictions of beach evolution across different temporal and spatial scales

Joel Cumelles Céspedes defended his doctoral thesis co-directed by Enrique Ortega Agodino and Jaime Oscar Casas Piedrafita on July 17 at the Baix Llobregat Campus. Titled System Identification of High-Performance Paraglider–Harness/Pilot Dynamics: From Modelling to Flight-Test Data. The thesis presents an integrated framework for the systematic analysis of high-performance paraglider and harness/pilot systems

Cibrán López defended his thesis co-directed by professors Claudio Cazorla and Edgardo Saucedo on June 29, 2026 at the Diagonal-Besòs Campus. Titled “Unveiling Correlated Charge Dynamics and Recombination Pathways in Energy Materials via Quantum Simulations and Machine Learning”, the thesis combines first-principles simulations and machine learning to model, at the atomic scale, the mechanisms that govern ionic transport and electronic recombination in solid-state electrolytes and emerging photovoltaic absorbers.

Researchers of the Department of Physics in collaboration with a team of European institutions have evaluated the impact of Nirsevimab, a monoclonal antibody that prevents bronchiolitis after a viral infection. This study has been published in a journal of the prestigious editorial group “The Lancet”.