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David Vallés-Pérez

Curriculum vitae

Job history


July. 2025 – Present

Postdoc

Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna (Italy)

Funded by the ERC StG DRANOEL of Prof. Annalisa Bonafede

Sept. 2024 – June 2025

Junior postdoc

Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

Extension of the Atracció de Talent individual PhD fellowship after defending the thesis

Jun. 2021 – Sept. 2024

Atracció de Talent predoctoral fellowship

Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

Competitive individual fellowship by Universitat de València for carrying out original research conducing to a PhD and for assisting in teaching duties

Nov. 2020 – Jun. 2021

Senior Research Technician

Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

Within the excellence PROMETEO project: Relativistic Astrophysics, Computational Cosmology and Gravitational Wave Astronomy

Education


Nov. 2020 – Sept. 2024

PhD in Physics

Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

Thesis: "Unravelling the complexity of cosmic flows: strong gradients, shock waves and turbulence"

Supervisors: Prof. Susana Planelles & Prof. Vicent Quilis

PhD viva: 26th September 2024

Committee: Prof. Stefano Borgani (UniTS & INAF-OATS), Prof. Franco Vazza (UniBo & INAF-IRA), Prof. José María Martí (UV)

Grade: Excellent, Cum Laude (unanimous)

Funded by Universitat de València through a competitive Atracció de Talent fellowship

Received the Extraordinary PhD award by the doctorate school of UV (top-10% among all unanimous cum laude PhD theses)

Read my PhD Thesis (31 MB download)

Sept. 2019 – Jul. 2020

M. Sc. in Advanced Physics

Specialty in Astrophysics

Facultat de Física, Universitat de València (Spain)

Master's Thesis: "On the accretion history of galaxy clusters". Grade: 10/10

Average grade: 9.85/10. 4 out of 6 subjects graded with honours (top-5%)

Received the Extraordinary award to the academic performance (top-2%)

Read my Master's Thesis (3 MB download)

Sept. 2015 – Jul. 2019

B. Sc. in Physics

Facultat de Física, Universitat de València (Spain)

Average grade: 9.80/10. 34 out of 41 subjects graded with honours (top-5%)

Received the Extraordinary award to the academic performance (top-2%)

Grants and awards


2025

Premio SEA Tesis 2025
by the Spanish Society of Astronomy

(award to the best PhD Thesis, defended in 2024, at a Spanish research centre or by a Spanish researcher)

Extraordinary PhD award
by the Doctorate School of Universitat de València

(top-10% award among all PhD Theses having received the unanimous Cum Laude distinction)

2024

Mavi Dolç i Gastaldo award
by the Servei de Política Lingüística of Universitat de València

(for the usage of Catalan in PhD Theses)

2021

Atracció de Talent PhD Fellowship
by Universitat de València
ACIF2021 PhD Fellowship
by Generalitat Valenciana

(declined)

FPU2020 PhD Fellowship
by the Spanish Ministerio de Universidades

(declined)

Scholarship for the promotion of academic excellence
by Generalitat Valenciana
2nd prize in the Jordi Porta i Jué award for the best Master's Thesis in Physics
by the Societat Catalana de Física

2020

Extraordinary award to the academic performance
in the Master's degree in Advanced Physics (top-2%)
1st prize in the Xavier Gómez i Font prize
for the linguistic quality of Master's Theses

2019

Research initiation grant
by the Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València
Extraordinary award to the academic performance
in the Bachelor's degree in Physics (top-2%)
2nd prize in the Xavier Gómez i Font prize
for the linguistic quality of Bachelor's Theses

2018

Collaboration grant
by the Spanish Ministry of Education

Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

Science outputs


Publications

Author of 12 peer-reviewed Q1 papers (9 as a first author)

Including 1 Nature Astronomy, 1 ApJL and 2 CPC

h-index: 6, i-10 index: 5

See more in the publications page

Talks

1 invited talk to international conferences

7 contributed talks to international conferences

4 contributed posters to international conferences

6 invited seminars at different research institutions

Codes

Main developer of 3 public codes for the analysis of cosmological/hydrodynamical simulations

Contributor to the development of the AMR code MASCLET (privative) and main developer of its Python framework

Internships and visits


May - July 2023

Research visit at Universitäts Sternwarte München

Development of the vortex-p code. Supervisor: Klaus Dolag

May - July 2022

Research visit at Università di Bologna

Analysis of MHD simulations of galaxy clusters. Supervisor: Franco Vazza

June - Sept. 2019

Internship at the Astronomical Observatory of Aras de los Olmos

Calibration of scientific instruments. Assistance to observations.

Teaching and supervision


Supervision of students

2 Master's students

Master's research project of Joan Balmon (2025)

Topic: "Study on the asymmetry, projection effects and self-similarity of pressure profiles in simulated galaxy clusters"

Master's Thesis of Isac Barranco (2024)

Topic: "Is hydrostatic equilibrium a reliable description of galaxy clusters?"

Co-supervision of his Introduction to research scholarship

4 Bachelor's students

Bachelor's Thesis of Jordi Barberà (2025)

Topic: "Structure finding in cosmological simulations: DM halo finders"

Bachelor's Thesis of Cristina López (2025)

Topic: "Observations of galaxy clusters along the electromagnetic spectrum"

Bachelor's Thesis of Marc Cuenca (2024)

Topic: "Tracking dark matter haloes in cosmological simulations: the hierarchical paradigm and halo fusions"

Bachelor's Thesis of Isac Barranco (2023)

Topic: "Identification of dark matter haloes in high-resolution cosmological simulations"

Teaching

Teaching assistant

Course: Classical Mechanics I in the Double Degree in Physics and Mathematics (Spring 2022, Spring 2023) and the Bachelor's Degree in Physics (Fall 2023)

Course: General Physics I in the Bachelor's Degree in Physics (Fall 2021, Fall 2022)

Tasks: Supervision of practical sessions, lectures on problem resolution, grading of assignments and exams

Organisation, management and representation


Organisation of meetings

Organizing Committee of the 2nd FOGLESS Coordinated Project Meeting

(held in València, 13th-14th May 2025)

Organizing Committee of the 1st FOGLESS Coordinated Project Meeting

(held in València, 6th-7th February 2024)

Organisation of seminars

Organisation seminars among PhD students
PhD Programme in Physics, Universitat de València (Spain)

November 2020 – January 2024

Organisation of weekly "Journal Club" seminars
Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València (Spain)

October 2020 – January 2024

Representation

Representative of Early Stage Researchers (PIF) in Department Council
Departament d'Astronomia i Astrofísica, Universitat de València

Nov. 2023 – June 2025 (by election)

Representative of Early Stage Researchers (PIF) in Faculty Board
Facultat de Física, Universitat de València (Spain)

Dec. 2022 – June 2025 (by election)

Outreach


Talks in high schools

  • Over 5 invited talks in high schools to promote scientific vocations among teenagers
  • Talks in outreach events

  • Regular invited participation in the international Escola d'Estiu Erasmus en Física in València
  • Activities for sensibilisation

  • Invited participation in round tables: careers in science, LGTBQ+ diversity in science
  • Received Grant for organizing socio-cultural activities on diversity issues. GVA and UV’s diversitats program. Project: “Espectre Visible” contest for artistic production to raise awareness of affective-sexual and gender diversity in scientific fields. Funding amount: €1000.
  • Media appearances

  • Researchers from UV suggest a new way to detect and measure the presence of dark matter in the Universe (in Spanish). In La Vanguardia and Europa Press.
  • Mass inflows from cosmic voids open new scenarios in the understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe (in Spanish). In El Periòdic and Europa Press.