PhD Thesis Defense
"Borja Serrano González, member of LIP’s SWGO group, successfully completed his PhD at Instituto Superior Técnico. Congratulations, Doctor! "
On July 11th, Borja Serrano González, PhD student at Instituto Superior Técnico and member of the SWGO group at LIP, successfully defended his thesis entitled “A Next-Generation Gamma-Ray Observatory Powered by Machine Learning Techniques.”
The thesis was supervised by Ruben Conceição (LIP/IST), with co-supervision by Mário Pimenta (LIP/IST) and Alberto Guillén (University of Granada). The examination committee included António Bueno (University of Granada), Guilherme Milhano (LIP/IST), Jaime Alvarez-Muñiz (University of Santiago de Compostela), Patrícia Gonçalves (LIP/IST), Ruben Conceição (supervisor), and was chaired by João Paulo Silva (IST).
Borja received the highest grade: Approved with Distinction and Honors.
His PhD research was carried out within the R&D phase of the future Southern Wide-field Gamma-ray Observatory (SWGO), to be installed in Chile. The thesis addressed key aspects of detector design and performance, from muon counting and gamma/hadron separation to directional reconstruction and astrophysical neutrino detection. Borja applied advanced deep learning techniques to develop analyses that not only significantly enhance the proposed detector performance but also demonstrate their versatility as tools for multi-messenger astronomy.
The thesis led to several international scientific publications and represents a valuable contribution to the SWGO development, showcasing the high-quality research conducted at LIP.
Congratulations Borja on this outstanding achievement, and best wishes for continued success in the future!