Azarquiel School July 4-11, 2010

Rafael Rebolo has pioneered in Spain experimental research on Cosmic Microwave Background, the radiation from the Big Bang which pervades the Universe, on nucleosynthesis processes in the Cosmos and on the formation processes of low luminosity objects like brown dwarfs, exoplanets and black holes. He is Research Professor at the High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and External Professor of the Max Planck
Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. Co-investigator of the space mission Planck recently launched by ESA to investigate the Cosmic Microwave Background and of several international teams involved in the development of the most advanced astronomical instrumentation including the future 42m ELT, the European project for the world largest optical infrared telescope. He is member of several boards for coordination of Astronomy in Europe and USA (EARA, OPTICON, AURA) and of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. He has been Head of Research of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, one of the largest institutions for Astronomy in Europe. Prof Rebolo has been awarded several of the most important research prizes in Spain for his studies on the radiation from the Big Bang, for the discovery in 1995 of brown dwarfs (astronomical objects intermediate between stars and giant planets, billions exist in our Galaxy ) and for his studies on the origin of stellar black holes. He is currently leading several projects aimed to search for gravitational waves in the Big Bang and to detect terrestrial planets in nearby stars from the observatories of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias.

Prof. Julio Samsó Moya is Professor of Arabic and Islamic science at the Universidad de Barcelona.
He received his PhD at the University of Barcelona, developing part of his research activities at Rabat and Alexandria. Prof. Samsó has also been professor at the Universidad de La Laguna and at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. He is an expert in History of Medieval Science, and in Astronomy in al-Andalus and the Maghrib. He has published 14 books and more than 180 papers, including his recent books Astronomy and Astrology in al-Andalus and the Maghrib (2007), Astrometeorología y astrología medievales (2008), and the well known Las Ciencias de los Antiguos en al-Andalus (1992) and Islamic Astronomy and Medieval Spain (1994).

Prof. George Saliba is Professor of Arabic and Islamic science at the Columbia University (New York, USA).
He is the author of some eight books and more than ninety articles including his most recent book, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance MIT Press, (2007), that has now been translated into Turkish; Arabic is in the proofs stage, and just contracted to appear in Bahasa (Indonisian). He has also published Rethinking the Roots of Modern Science: The Role of Arabic Manuscripts in European Libraries (1999); A History of Arabic Astronomy: Planetary Theories During the Golden Age of Islam (NYU Press,1994); Greek Astronomy and the Arabic Scientific Tradition in American Scientist (July-August 2002) translated into Spanish and German.

Prof. Margarita Hernanz Carbó is Research Professor of CSIC (Spanish Research Council).
She is CSIC scientist since 1990 and previously was at the Polytechnical University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona (1984-1990). PhD Thesis in Astrophysics at the University of Barcelona (1986). Her research topics include: Late stages of stellar evolution: white dwarfs, isolated and in interacting binary systems, stellar explosions on white dwarfs (novae and type Ia supernovae). – Nuclear astrophysics: nucleosynthesis, chemical evolution of the Galaxy, galactic radioactivity and cosmochemistry, impact of nuclear physics. - High energy astrophysics: X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy (theory and observations with XMM-Newton, Chandra, Swift, CGRO, INTEGRAL), instrumentation for future hard X/soft gamma-ray missions. Margarita has published more than 100 papers in SCI journals, including Nature, Science, Astrophys. J., Astron. & Astrophys, MNRAS, Phys. Rev. C, Phys. Rev. Lett., Nuclear Phys. and more than 120 papers presented to international conferences, editor of several conference proceedings. She has been project manager of several projects, with funding from Spanish National Research Programmes, participation (both as PI or co-I) in several bilateral and multilateral European projects (with France, Italy, Russia...), and in projects with funding from the Catalan Government. PI and co-I of many approved proposals to XMM-Newton, Chandra, CGRO and INTEGRAL satellites. Prof. Margarita Co-I of feasibility studies of future gamma-ray missions (ESA, NASA). Member of XMM-Newton and INTEGRAL Time Allocation Committees. Member of various MEC (Spanish Ministry of Education and Science) evaluation panels.

Prof. Emilio J. Alfaro is the President of the Spanish Astronomical Society and researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC, Granada-Spain).
He got his degree in physics at the Universidad de Sevilla in 1976 and his PhD at the Universidad de Granada in 1981, during that time he worked with Wilhem Becker at the Astronomical Observatory of the Bassel University and with José Manuel García-Pelayo at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía. From 1981 to 1987 Prof. Alfaro was professor at the Universidad de Cádiz. He has been CSIC scientist since 1987. In 1992 he was a “Visiting Scholar” at the Boston University. Nowadays Prof. Alfaro is the leader of the “Stellar System” group at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC). His research topics include the structure and origin of the Milky Way and star formation. He lectures PhD courses at the Universidad de Granada, is coordinator of several outreach activities and is developing one if the first generation instruments for GRANTECAN: OSIRIS. Since January 2009 is the President of the Spanish Astronomical Society.

Prof. Oscar Straniero is the Director of the INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania in Teramo (Italy).
He took his degree in Physics in 1987 at the Universita La Sapienza (Roma) and, after 3 years at the Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa), he got a permanent position at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania in 1990. In 1989 he was a visiting researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain). Expert on stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis, he is associated to the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, collaborating in several projects related with Nuclear Astrophysics (like LUNA). Since 2000 he is Associated Professor at the Universita of Aquila and Universita of Teramo and recently became Research Director at INAF.

Prof. Claus Rolfs is  Professor at the University of Bochum (Germany).
He received his PhD in Physics in 1967 from the University of Freiburg. After that, he has developed his research and academic activities in several countries: University of Toronto (Canada, 1969-70), California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, USA, 1973, 1975, 1978, 1980, 1985), University of Münster (Germany, 1974), Ohio State University (Columbus, USA, 1980), Georgetown University ( Washington DC, USA, 1984), University of Naples (Italy, 1995). He has published a reference book in Nuclear Astrophysics, recommended in universities all over the world: “Cauldrons in the Cosmos“ (University of Chicago Press 1988). Since 1990 he is Professor of Experimental Physics in Bochum (Germany). He has been awarded with several international prices, among them the four prestigious Röntgen, Millikan, Humboldt and Bethe. Prof. Rolfs has been a long-term collaborator of Nobel-Laureat Prof. Fowler (Pasadena, California). Prof. Rolfs is Doctor honoris causa from Lisboa University (Portugal, 2005), Doctor honoris causa from Catania University (Sicily, 2005) and Doctor honoris causa from Naples University (Italy, 2006) and Honorary member of the physical society of Hungarian Academy of Science and Honorary member of nuclear physics society of Greece.

Prof. Orhan Gölbasi is Professor at the Istanbul Kultur University (Turkey).
He accomplished his higher education in the Istanbul University where he received his Ph.D. in 1981. He won a position as Associate Professor at the Inonu University (Malatya) in 1990 and he has been Professor to the Akdeniz University from 2000 to 2007. During the last decade he has been involved in the developing of the Tubitak National Observatory (Antalya), in particular in the astrolabe and other instruments.