Josep Trigo-Rodriguez

Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez was born in Valencia (Spain) on July 3, 1970 into a family of artists. He was the second, and last son of the famous painter Julio Trigo CAMPOYmarried with Maria Gloria Rodriguez Sánchez. Josep grew in an environment of great interest for the arts and sciences, and he was deeply marked by Isaac Asimov, Josep Comas Solà, Camille Flammarion, and Carl Sagan readings. In fact, together with his parents, his eleven-years older brother Xulio Ricardo Trigo , a brilliant poet and novelist, marked Josep’s interest in literature, and science popularization.

After two years collaborating as science journalist, in 1990 Josep got a job in the Castelló Planetarium, where he spent thirteen years working in the development of programs, and public outreach. The last four years he was also working as Associate Professor in the University Jaume I of Castelló, giving lectures on Thermodynamics and Physics. In 1995 he met Prof. J. Oró who exerted in him a profound influence to continue his professional carrier, and keep learning on the origin of stars, planetary systems, meteorites and cosmochemistry. Finally, Dr. Trigo-Rodríguez obtained his degree in Physics for the University of Valencia in 1997, and his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics (Astrophysics) in 2002 under the direction of Prof. Jordi Llorca (UPC) and Prof. Juan Fabregat (UV), and also wrote several books to popularize astronomy. In 2003 he got a MEC Spanish grant that allowed him to continue his carrier in a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Geophysics & Planetary Physics of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) under the supervision of Prof. John Wasson, and Dr. Alan Rubin. After almost three years working on primitive meteorites (carbonaceous chondrites) he returned in 2006 to Spain with a JdC grant in order to join the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC-IEEC)in Barcelona. On 2009 he won his position as Tenured Scientist (Científico Titular) of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) at that research institute. Since 2010 Dr. Trigo-Rodriguez is the leader of the Meteorite, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences Group at ICE (CSIC-IEEC) . His current research focuses in the formation of primitive solar system minor bodies (comets and asteroids), the study of their fragments in space (dust, meteoroids) and the analysis and characterization of their surviving rocks arrived to the Earth (meteorites). These “minor bodies” provide clues on the origin of the solar system because were retentive of the protoplanetary disc components that retained clues on the chemical and isotopic conditions prevailing in the early Solar System.

His scientific contributions are available at this homepage: http://www.spmn.uji.es/ESP/ICE_Meteorite_group.html