I obained by degree of Licenciado en Fisica in 1986 from the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina).  My final research project was carried out at the National Institute of Industrial Technology, and consisted of developing experimental tools to measure thermal properties of  materials, and using them to study thermal diffusivity and heat capacity of cement  during the curing process. My next step was to move to SISSA in Trieste (Italy) for a PhD in the statistical mechanics and phase transitions in reconstructed surfaces. After a year of courses and a year of research, I obtained the intermediate degree of Magister Philosophiae (1989). My supervisor was Prof. Erio Tosatti. Instead of staying further two years for my PhD in Trieste, I availed of an opportunity to transfer to IBM Zurich Research Laboratory (Switzerland) to do a PhD with Prof. Michele Parrinello. This is when I learnt electronic structure theory and practice, by working directly with the Car-Parrinello code for ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. For my PhD thesis I studied, via ab initio Molecular Dynamics, the properties of two novel materials: Fullerenes and Porous Silicon (1993). This was in the beginnings of the nanoscience, and my work on silicon nanowires remains today my most cited scientific paper, with over 350 citations. After my PhD I moved to Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon (France) for two year, to study, using the same methodology, the properties of the dense hydrogen plasma. This was of fundamental interest, but also of practical implications for the giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. This brought me into the field of High Pressure physics, a research area in which I remained for five more years after moving again to Trieste, to the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP). Apart from high pressures, I started doing some work in chemical physics, studying molecules in solution and protons transfer processes, and also commenced a research line to introduce quantum nuclear effects in electronic structure calculations. Apart from research, in Trieste I was also in charge of organizing training activities in the field of electronic structure. 

In 1999 I obtained a position as a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast, and this is where I am after almost 20 years. In 2004 I was promoted to Reader, and in 2010 to Full Professor. Since 2012 I am the Director of the Atomistic Simulation Centre, a group composed of 7 staff members and about 20 PhD students and postdocs. My teaching is in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where I teach a wide range of subjects at all levels. In 2004 I started a very successful research line in room temperature ionic liquids in collaboration with the School of Chemistry. This is still active nowadays. A highlight during this period was the publication of a single-authored book on electronic structure (Cambridge, 2006). A big change came in 2008 when I went on sabbatical leave to Cambridge University. There, in collaboration with Prof. Emilio Artacho, I started what has been my main research activity during the past 10 years, and will remain so for the next decade: the modelling and simulation of irradiation processes, with particular focus on radiation damage to biological systems. This line has been very successful judging from a a regular stream of invited talks at Workshops and Conferences. Under this umbrella is that I have developed an expertise in electronic excitations.