My research work deals with the study of hydrodynamic instabilities in several problems, and the development of numerical techniques for the analysis of partial differential equations from the perspective of Dynamical Systems. The main problems I have studied are the thermal convection in rotating spheres and spherical shells, with some incursions in Magnetohydrodynamics, the Taylor-Couette system (flow between rotating cylinders), the vortex-breakdown problem (flow inside a cylinder forced by the rotation of the lids), and convection in rectangular boxes for pure and binary mixtures. The tools used are, mainly, the discretization of Navier-Stokes equations and those for the temperature and concentration by spectral or pseudospectral methods, and the use of continuation methods to track the dependence with the physical parameters of the equilibria, periodic orbits, and their bifurcations. We have leaded the development of these general continuation techniques at an international level.

Short CV

I earned my degree in Mathematics in 1986, and the doctoral degree in Applied Mathematics in 1994 with a thesis on the Taylor-Couette problem, both at the Universitat de Barcelona. I started to work in the UPC in 1986 as "Profesor ayudante LRU". I obtained a permanent position as "Profesor Titular de Escuela Universitaria" in 1990, and as "Profesor Titular de Universidad" (Associate Professor) in 1998. I have the accreditation for a full professorship. My teaching has been associated mainly to the School of Civil Engineering, and the different doctorate and master programs of the Department of Applied Physics, and now Department of Physics of the UPC. I also teach at the degrees of Engineering Physics and Mathematics. I have always being a member of the research group on Convective and Rotational Instabilities of the UPC, and of the group Dynamical Systems UPC-UB.