Jose A. Lopez-Fernandez

José Antonio López Fernández was born in Motril, Spain, in 1965. He received the Telecommunications Engineering degree from the Politechnical University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree from Joseph Fourier University, Grenoble, France, in 1994. He started with a fellowship for the development of SIS radio astronomical receivers in 1989 at the Institute of Radioastronomie Millimetrique (IRAM), Saint-Martin-d’Héres, France. In 1992, he joined the Yebes Observatory, Madrid, as a Receiver Engineer. From 2001 to 2017, he was the Head of the Technological Development Center (CDT), National Geographical Institute, Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), Yebes Observatory. He was in charge for the construction, commissioning, and operation of the 40 m radio telescope in Yebes and also for the development of the 13.2 m radio telescopes of RAEGE (Atlantic Network of Geodynamic and Space Stations), a sub-network of VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS). He has been responsible for the construction of the receivers covering the frequency band from 2 to 120 GHz and currently in operation at the 40 m Yebes radio telescope. He was also in charge for the development of triband (S/X/Ka) and broadband (2–14 GHz) cryogenic receivers for the International VLBI Service (IVS) and VGOS. Since 2017, he has been the Deputy Director of Astronomy, Geophysics and Space Activities, IGN. His current research interests include development of radio astronomical receivers and the construction of radio telescopes.