6 new people have joined the CRM in several capacities during the last two months.
In February and March we have welcomed several new people that have joined the CRM to work both at the research support team and the CRM research staff. Below you can find a short presentation of each one.
Irene Spelta
Postdoctoral Researcher
Irene is a Maria de Maeztu postdoctoral fellow working in the group of Juan Carlos Naranjo (UB-CRM). Previously, she was a postdoc at the University of Pavia funded by the Italian Institute of Mathematics (INdAM). There she worked in the group of Paola Frediani. Moreover, she spent some months as a postdoctoral researcher at IMUB. She obtained her PhD at the University of Pavia in 2020. Her research interests lie in Algebraic Geometry. In particular, she studies moduli of curves and of abelian varieties.
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Neus Pou
Research technician
Neus studied the degree in Biomedical Sciences at the Universitat de Barcelona and the master’s in bioinformatics at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is working in the Computational Neuroscience group with Alex Hyafil since September. She has collaborated in other neuroscience research groups: in the Neurophysiology group at the UIB (Balearic Islands), in the Circadian Rhythms and Metabolism group at the Institute of Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences in Strasbourg (France) and in the UPF Neuropharmacology group.
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Patricia Alves
Accountant
Patricia started working at CRM as a Technician in the Accounting and Finance department. Her academic background is: Higher Degree in International Trade (IES Jaume Mimó, Cerdanyola del Vallès), Diploma in Labour Relations (UAB) and Official Master’s Degree in Social and Labour Rights (UAB). Her professional career began at the University Institute of European Studies (2009-2012), a research center located at the UAB.
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Clara Cufí
Scientific Software Developer
Clara graduated in Mathematics and Physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and then moved to the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) to complete a MSc in Advanced Mathematics. She obtained a PhD in Mathematics by the UAB in February 2023, with a PhD thesis entitled “Contributions to the study of periodic orbits and invariant manifolds in dynamical systems”. During her PhD studies she participated in the organization of seminars and workshops for young researchers, some of them hosted by the CRM.
On March 2023 she joined the CRM as a Scientific Software Developer at the Knowledge Transfer Unit.
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Pau Costa
Scientific Activities Manager
Pau studied Physics in Universitat de Barcelona, majoring in Applied Physics. During the last year he was a laboratory assistant in the MIND research group with Dr. Juan Marcos Fernández Pradas as part of an internship and final degree project. He also studied a Postgraduate in Scientific Communication at the University of Vic, coordinated by Eduscopi.
His work experience is diverse, having worked as a private teacher and a basketball coach, but he also has experience in consulting for R+D+i projects and in a scientific communication agency. Now, Pau is part of the Scientific Activities Management Team here at CRM.
Profile
Pau Reig
Scientific Software Developer
Pau graduated in Physics (BSc) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), where he is currently persuing a MSc Degree in Modelling for Science and Engineering while working as a scientific software developer at CRM. He also has interest and passion for music, in which he is ending the professional degree in jazz (electric bass) at Conservatori del Liceu.
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CRM Comm Team
Anna Drou | Pau Varela
CRMComm@crm.cat
The CRM opens the academic year and unveils its Directors’ Gallery
A review of the year, the Communication Plan 2026–2030 and three research talks filled the morning of 19 October.The unveiling of the Directors’ Gallery.CRM CommPau VarelaCRMComm@crm.catGet the latest CRM news and activities in your inbox.Recent...
The CRM Mentoring Programme, as Told by One of Its Pairs
PhD student Joaquim Duran and mathematician Robert Cardona, one of the pairs in the CRM Mentoring ProgrammeJoaquim Duran (left) and Robert Cardona.CRM CommPau VarelaCRMComm@crm.catGet the latest CRM news and activities in your inbox.Recent...
When the reward comes within reach, the brain changes what it compares
As the tokens piled up, choices got faster and more accurate at the same time. The yardstick for judging each offer had moved.CRM CommPau VarelaCRMComm@crm.catGet the latest CRM news and activities in your inbox.Recent newsletters →Two subjects...
Almost every automaton can be reset with a short word
Guillaume Chapuy (Université Paris Cité, CNRS) and Guillem Perarnau (UPC, CRM) have shown that a random finite automaton with n states can, with high probability, be reset by a word of length of order √n log n. The result, published in ACM Transactions on Algorithms, pins the exponent at 1/2, the lower end of a decade of numerical estimates, and addresses the random version of the synchronization problem behind a conjecture Ján Černý posed in 1964 and which still remains open.
Exposició ‘Les matemàtiques de Gaudí’
CRM quod erat demonstrandum | 48
ADA: Decoding Brain Signals Misaligned in Time
The study addresses a key limitation of current brain decoding techniques: the difficulty of interpreting internal mental processes whose temporal dynamics vary from trial to trial.Decoding what is happening in a person’s mind from their brain activity is one of the...
Rare curves, many points: Christophe Ritzenthaler and Rachel Pries on their research and the work around it
Christophe Ritzenthaler (Université de Rennes) and Rachel Pries (Colorado State University) both work on curves over finite fields: he hunts curves with as many points as possible, she hunts curves that almost never occur. In conversation with the CRM during their...
Call open for the 2027 Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize
The Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Foundation is accepting submissions for its 2027 prize, which awards 15,000 euros and publication in Birkhäuser's Progress in Mathematics series to an expository monograph on an active area of mathematical research. The deadline is 27...
Susanna Terracini delivers the CRM Colloquium 2026
Susanna Terracini (Università di Torino) delivered the CRM Colloquium 2026 on 14 July, presenting a rigidity result for Kepler billiards obtained with Stefano Baranzini, Vivina Barutello and Irene De Blasi. She was at the centre as a member of the CRM Scientific...
Ho Chi Minh City hosts the SEAMS School on applying mathematics to real-world problems
Students from across the region took courses and worked on group projects at a school co-organised by CRM researcher Tim Myers.CRM CommPau VarelaCRMComm@crm.catGet the latest CRM news and activities in your inbox.Recent newsletters →Between 4 and...
A single ball on a fixed table can compute: Eva Miranda and Isaac Ramos prove that two-dimensional billiards are Turing complete
Eva Miranda (UPC, CRM) and Isaac Ramos (ETH Zürich) show that a point particle bouncing inside a planar table with fixed walls can simulate a universal Turing machine, settling a question Cristopher Moore left open in 1990. The result grew out of a master’s project...


















