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Instalaciones del IRyA

Mission Statement

To carry out world-class astronomy research in the following areas: Interstellar Medium, Star Formation, Evolved Stars, High Energies, Galactic Dynamics and Structure, Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology; to open new and up-to-date research projects in Astrophysics in fields that haven’t been studied in the country; to provide top-level training in this discipline and to promote the dissemination of astronomy.

Vision

To be acknowledged as a national and international research leader in astrophysics; to have a top-level astronomy education program, enhancing the insertion of its students in national and international institutions in this discipline, including general academic fields, the private sector, and areas where their education in physics, mathematics and high-level computing can be useful. In addition, our vision aims to keep a close contact with society through outreach programs aimed for a wider public, especially students from pre-school up to undergraduate levels.

Dr. Luis Alberto Zapata

Director 2019-2023


Dr. Luis Alberto Zapata

Contact


DIRECTOR

Dr. Luis Alberto Zapata

Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica
Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro # 8701
Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta
Morelia, Michoacán, México C.P. 58089

Email: xm.manu.ayri@noiccerid


DIRECTOR'S ASSISTANT

Laura Alicia Sillas

Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica

Phone: +52 443 322 27 95
From CDMX: 55 5623 2795
Red UNAM: 32795

Email: xm.manu.ayri@noiccerid

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Luis A. Zapata is currently a "Titular B" researcher, level "D" in the Full-Time Academic Staff Performance Bonus Program (PRIDE), and level II in the National System of Researchers (SNI).

His line of research is the study of planet and star formation in our Galaxy using observations at wavelengths that range from radio to submillimiter. These types of studies have helped to understand how our Sun, along with the Earth, formed billions of years ago along with the evolution of the Universe.

He has over 100 accepted publications in refereed journals of international circulation, which have received over 2000 citations in the specialized literature.

In 2016 he received the National University Recognition of Distinction for Young Academics in the area of Exact Sciences, awarded by UNAM. In 2017 he was awarded the TWAS ROLAC Young Scientist Prize by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

He is a member of various research project committees by CONACyT and UNAM, as well as a proposal reviewer for obtaining telescope time with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter and Submillimeter Array (ALMA). He has also been part of the scientific committee for the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT), located in Puebla, Mexico, due to his expertise in the field of submillimiter astronomy.


Institute of Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics (IRyA)
UNAM Campus Morelia

Antigua Carretera a Pátzcuaro # 8701 Ex-Hda. San José de la Huerta
Morelia, Michoacán, México C.P. 58089

IRyA, UNAM

Director's Office
Phone: +52 443 322 2795
Email: xm.manu.ayri@noiccerid

Academic Secretary
Phone: +52 443 322 2796
Email: xm.manu.ayri@dacasa

Graduate Studies
Phone: +52 443 322 2899
Email: xm.manu.ayri@odargsop

Outreach Department
Phone: +52 443 322 2799
Email: xm.manu.ayri@noicagluvid

Library
Phone: +52 443 322 2752
Email: xm.manu.ayri@ovreca

Website
Email: xm.manu.ayri@retsambew

IRyA Data Center

Computer systems at IRyA

IRyA has personal computing equipment and mid-size servers. In addition, IRyA has cutting-edge high-performance computing equipment (clusters).

The Draco cluster is used to process large amounts of data (up to tens of TB per project) from arrays of radio telescopes such as ALMA and VLA. It has 272 cores, 1,088 GB of RAM and 660 TB of storage in the Lustre file system (540 TB in HDD disks and 120 TB in SSD disks). Draco uses a 10 Gbps high-speed internal network, and is optimized to do serial calculations and to simultaneously read/write to/from parallel storage disks.

The Mouruka cluster is used for fast numerical computation, mainly in theoretical topics involving hydrodynamic simulations and radiative transfer calculations. It has 1,164 processors, 4,672 GB of RAM and 80 TB of storage. Mouruka uses a high-speed InfiniBand QDR internal network of 40 Gbps. Mouruka is optimized for intensive parallel computing, although its storage capabilities are lower than Draco's.

The Calzonzin cluster was the main cluster for fast numerical calculations before the acquisition of Mouruka, and is still widely used by IRyA researchers and students. It has 360 processors, 768 GB of RAM, 48 TB of storage and a GPU with 448 cores. It is optimized for intensive parallel calculations.

Instrumentation laboratory

The laboratory's main activity is to develop instrumentation for observational radio astronomy. The laboratory is involved in radio receiver projects covering the frequency range from 20 MHz to 345 GHz, as well as in the development of digital spectrometers based on analogue-to-digital signal conversion and electronic signal processing. The laboratory collaborates with other national and international organizations, including institutions in England, South Africa and the United States that focus on the development and setup of such instruments.

The funding for the laboratory comes from national and international sources, both public and private. The public funds include national support by UNAM and CONACyT, and foreign support from the governments of England and South Africa. In the private field, Xilinx Corporation contributes with in-kind donations. Thanks to that support, our laboratory owns modern equipment for the production and analysis of circuits, as well as radio frequency and microwave instruments including oscilloscopes, signal and noise generators, and spectrum and network analyzers.

The laboratory contributes to teaching and mentoring of students through UNAM's graduate program in science (astronomy), offering workshops and activities to complement the elective radio astronomy courses, as well as logistic support for the completion of master's and doctoral theses. It also participates regularly in summer schools and in the education of teachers and students. Finally, the laboratory also welcomes undergraduate students to use its facilities and equipment for their theses, social service and internships.

Radio astronomy laboratory

In 1995, a small group of researchers from the Institute of Astronomy of UNAM moved to Morelia as an external unit of the Institute. The main incentive for the creation of this new unit was UNAM's interest to undertake its national character, creating campuses in various cities of Mexico, as several private universities had successfully done. Additionally, astronomical research was strongly centralized at UNAM's Mexico City and Ensenada campuses and at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE) in Tonantzintla, Puebla. During the first year, the unit used a space provided by the Universidad Michoacana, and then moved to a rented private home adapted as an academic installation. In 2000, the unit moved and was established in a building of the UNAM's Campus in Morelia. The campus land was donated to UNAM by the Michoacán State Government. In 2003, the unit became the Center of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics (CRyA), and Prof. Luis Felipe Rodríguez, who had been responsible for the unit for 8 years, was appointed director for the period 2003–2007.

Initial IRyA group (c. 2003).

Later, Prof. Susana Lizano was appointed as CRyA Director for the period 2007-2011 and again for the period 2011-2015, during which she transformed the center into an institute. Since CRyA's beginnings, its researchers have reached outstanding results in their research work, in their top-level training programs, and in promoting astronomy, particularly in the state of Michoacán. As a result of its consolidation and international recognition, CRyA was transformed into the Institute of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics (IRyA) during the University Council session of July 1, 2015. Prof. Lizano was responsible of the management of the new institute until September 7, when the Governing Board of UNAM appointed Prof. Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni as IRyA's director for the period 2015-2019. The impact of IRyA's scientific work is measured by international bibliographic citations per researcher per year, and currently IRyA is at the top of UNAM's Scientific Research Subsystem.

Current IRyA group (c. 2015).

More information can be found in the proceedings of the conference Frontiers in Contemporary Astrophysics, which was carried out in 2013 in order to celebrate CRyA's first decade:

Subcategories

Spotlight on Research

#1: A dying galaxy triggers the birth of new stars

Jan 30, 2022
What caused our Sun to be born? A recent paper by researchers from the Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica (IRyA) suggests that the answer may lie in a small satellite galaxy that is slowly being devoured by our larger Milky Way Galaxy.