Latest update: 03/02/25 (DD/MM/YY)
Welcome! My name is Mateo, and I am currently finishing a Bachelor's degree in Physics at the University of Oviedo. I come from the lovely region of Asturias.
I have created this 'blog' with two main purposes: adding details to what is written in my CV, and uploading whatever I want. The History section is used to provide a more elaborated description of my academic history, but in a relaxed style and filled with personal stories: you should judge it with a sense of humor. You can download my CV by clicking on the following button:
Moreover, I have added two sections that are going to be like a usual blog, more or less personal. In the Writings section I will be uploading some texts and poems I have written over the years, and maybe some 'posts'. When 'completed', it will mostly be in Spanish, as it is my mother tongue. The Images section will consist of a miscellaneous of pictures taken or produced by me.
I am really happy to announce that I have been awarded a Jae Intro ICU competitive grant funded by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Thanks to it, I will be able to work for three months with the Molecular Interactions group (INTERMOL) on the project Quantum effects during transport and adsorption of atoms trough nanoporous membranes at the Fundamental Physics Institute (IFF) in Madrid. The study will combine theoretical models and computational simulations.
Specifically, I am working on Molecular Dynamics simulations, both with Fortran and LAMMPS.
My Bachelor thesis Connecting theory and experiment: study of molecules on surfaces trough STM and simulations is currently under development. Appart from the experience I am acquiring at the lab (read below), I am using the Tight-Binding method to perform numerical simulations with Python to predict the properties of molecules, such as poly-para-phenylene(PPP). The goal is to compare the theoretical results with experimental data.
As part of my degree, I am gaining on-site experience on Surface Science and Molecular Physics at SumoLab. They are a surface science research group, part of the Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Research Center (CINN), a mixed center in which the University of Oviedo and the Spanish National Research Council participate.
The activity of the laboratory is mainly on-surface synthesis, for which an SPM is essential. The main experience I am acquiring is operating a Scienta Omicron Low Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscope (LT STM). With liquid nitrogen (77K), liquid helium (4K) and multiple pumps (such as ion pumps) we are able to measure surfaces under conditions of low temperature (around 4K) and ultra-high vacuum (around 10^-11 mbar). Some examples of the work of the group are the study of graphene nanoribbons and the synthesis of the largest Starphene obtained to date.
Also, I need to mention how fun and interesting is working with them! Not just excellent scientists, but great people.
I worked on the Project SV-24-GIJON-1-15 with a 4-month contract which was possible thanks to a competitive grant funded by IUTA. During that time I used the software AVL CRUISE™ M, improving a thermodynamic model of a marine diesel engine, with which we created a failure database that was used to train a Machine Learning (ML) model able to detect faults and predict the performance of a marine diesel engine. Thanks to the work done we propose a new methodology: opposing the state-of-the-art, we apply ML models that are simple and interpretable.
This was, and still is, a tough challenge. However, being able to work with competent researchers from other fields is something I am grateful for. Hopefully a paper incoming...
I had the chance to visit Vienna, the Imperial City, for the first time. Even though I did not have much time for tourism, it was worth it, and left me with the desire of coming back.
It was a one week school hosted by Universität Wien and TU Wien, organized by the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology and TURIS Research Network. There were more than a hundred participants, almost all of them PhD students. Many topics of current research were reached, such as Quantum Gravity, General Relativity or Quantum Information.
Also, it is remarkable that the courses covered both Theoretical and Experimental Physics, which is something I appreciated. I was very happy to find that two of the lecturers were Spanish (and excellent communicators). The conference dinner was really fun, but hear me out: Spanish food is just superior.
I decided to visit Amsterdam for a couple of days before arriving to Utrecht. I took a flight from Madrid to Amsterdam, which unfortunately was delayed so I arrived at 9 PM on a Friday to my hotel, near Vondelpark. I was tired after traveling (and waiting) the whole day.
I had then the whole Saturday to visit Amsterdam, and I did the best I could. I walked around Vondelpark, found an art gallery called Cobra Art, went to Museumplein and Moco Museum. Then, I had
lunch at an Irish Pub and finally arrived to the canals and the city center. Anyway, then it got late...
But you are probably not interested in what I saw, at night, in the city of the Red-light district... No, you are interested in Theoretical Physics!
Unlike the other two courses I took during the 2024 Summer, the target audience of this one were advanced bachelor students. I liked being aroung so many capable and highly-qualified students! I cannot precisely express how a wonderful week it was. I had the best roommates I could have asked for and the city was really nice. The courses we took, such as Soft Matter or Introduction to AdS/CFT were stimulating and taught by very good professors. The last lecture was given by the Nobel Prize in Physics Gerard 't Hooft!
I participated in a two-weeks international School on Complex System in Madrid. It was an inspiring experience, as I had the chance to meet a lot of PhD students that were doing research on many interesting topics. Also, it was a good opportunity to improve my English: it was a bit rusty due to lack of use.
I really enjoyed the interdisciplinary approach of the lectures, with courses such as Social Inequalities, Dynamical Systems or Neuroscience. And there were outstanding speakers like Gabriel Mindlin, Luis Seoane or Fariba Karimi.
It was a really nice course covering the basics of Data Science and ML. It consisted of six Saturdays (now the name makes sense) of lectures, reaching topics such as Random Forest, Unsupervised Learning and Neural Networks. It wasn't funny attending classes on Saturdays at 10 AM, but the lectures were really interesting and were given by highly qualified professionals.
There were six more Saturdays in which we had to develop a project with social impact.
I was really lucky to have a capable and fun team. We decided to use a dataset from the Mathematical Oncology Laboratory (MOLAB), an institute associated to the University of Castilla-La Mancha. The database contained information about patients with brain metastases. It was a really hard job, as there were three files with different structures, and a lot of work was done before any study could be done. Also, it is important to realize that before doing anything one must understand the problem and the data, and it was not an easy task.
Finally, we were able to predict with a 75% of accuracy whether a patient would survive more than 500 days, or less. This might not sound surprising, but it was achieved with just 75 patients! There were tries to predict the relapse of a patient, but with the data we had it was not possible to obtain any good results.
I am writing this before having finished my degree, but in no more than seven months I will have completed it. I have to say that these have been bitter years, probably not just because of uni, but due to external personal issues that have limited me. However, I am closer to fulfiling what is probably my main ambition right now: creating my journey in research.
I celebrated my eighteenth birthday two weeks before the quarantine was declared, here in Spain, mid-March. We already had our graduation photos taken, but the ceremony never happened. That year, there was a special version of the university entrance exams. My girlfriend at the time, who was also my classmate, had her assigned seat next to mine: a fun coincidence.
I had the opportunity to stay for three weeks at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh. During that time, we took English classes and there were many group activities. We visited Glasgow and Edinburgh, which I loved. I realized how hard Scottish accent is. I met people from places like Italy, Greece or Chile, as well as from other regions of Spain. A Greek girl and I fell in love with each other.
One time playing football, I met a supervisor who was half-Spanish. He told me that the Italians should be easy to beat because he had seen them smoking. He wasn't lying.
I had been taking private classes for about three years, and for the first time ever I had to prove my English knowledge. I hated those classes, but in the end they were extremely useful for my development.
For the oral test, I was paired with a girl from the same high school. I didn't know her, as she was two years older than me. I had to show her my ID because she wouldn't believe I was fifteen years old. Some time later I found her on social media, but unfortunately she had a boyfriend.
Take a look at my past
But everything's gone
I don't have much more time
Here it seems like I'm done
Get a taste from the future
Could it actually be clear?
Just probably a nightmare
Though the suffering is real
I embrace the pain
So I can get the signs
I'm gonna let it burn
Just to relieve my mind
The shadows that haunt me
I'm trying them to leave
This might not be the end
But I'm finally free
You, my love
It's me, for the last time
I know it is tough
But it will be alright
Follow the path inside
Search for your soul
Look into the mirror
Before it's time to go
Aim for the future
A new one, better one
So just move on
without ever saying goodbye
Es un dolor
que nunca se fue.
Te inhabilita
y dejas de ser.
Te deja en el suelo
sollozando,
rogando por lágrimas
para liberarlo.
Soy una piedra, un regodón de río.
Puedo ver y sentir, emocionarme y escuchar, comunicarme y llorar. Y mucho más, aunque los llamados seres vivos desconozcan todo ello. Yo tengo una vida diferente, porque las entidades inanimadas obtenemos nuestra consciencia gracias a una existencia independiente del mundo material. En cambio, los seres animados de este universo están anclados al espacio, al tiempo y la materia que los conforma. Cuando su cuerpo se dispersa, dejan de existir.
Los humanos, las criaturas más extra-ordinarias del único lugar que posee este tipo de entes, creen que todo funciona al revés. Piensan que yo, que soy una piedra, no tengo existencia consciente, y que ellos mismos poseen una representación de su individualidad en una dimensión> abstracta e inmaterial: es todo lo contrario.
De esta manera, el universo no existe porque ellos estén aquí, dado que no son más que una contingencia. En realidad, somos lo que ellos llaman deidad. Pero están confundidos. Se creen el centro de La Creación cuando sus intereses no ocupan un lugar en nuestro pensamiento. Son seres curiosos, que nos entretienen, pero poco más...
Debería estar viendo la luz, pero me encuentro desconcertado. Tan solo veo el pasado, mi terrible historia, como si se repitiera una y otra vez en mi cabeza. Un sufrimiento continuo.
Anclado a ello, no veo la luz ni lo que tengo frente a mis ojos, y no siento nada.
Las sombras me acechan, una vez más. Son viejas conocidas, incansables y feroces, que me acompañan desde los inicios de este viaje.
Las veo, las intuyo. Desconozco si aún las temo. Bailan a mi alrededor, aguardando un paso en falso, un fallo irreversible, que les concederá mi alma.
Me susurran. Tararean una melodía repetitiva y exasperante que me agota y arrebata las fuerzas. Escucho las voces sincronizadas en mi nuca, pero he dejado de voltearme: cuando lo hago, nunca están ahí.
Las siento, las aprecio, acariciándome la piel. Arañan y muerden, no como me gustaría. Intentan desestabilizarme, provocar que ceda ante el camino para así abalanzarse y poseerme. No lo han conseguido, todavía.
¿Y cómo escapar de ella? Si es parte de mí.
Cause it's no good.
The memories of a whole life packed in a bunch of boxes.
It feels unreal, like a bad dream, and the pain is extreme- it will get worse-.
I try to sleep and I think about that fatal night. Everything repeats, again and again... I hear the cryes and the screams, I see
the tears, I feel the sorrow around and inside me. I remember myself running til I was out of breath, even though I
didn't believe it was really happening. But it was. I still have that final image engraved in my mind, and that sensation when I
thought I had felt a heartbeat: it was probably mine.
My grandmother, Amor Gutiérrez Fernández, passed away in the arms of one of her sons, my father, and her niece, who
was the daughter she never had. It happened on Christmas Eve, and with her departure an inmense hole has appeared
in our family. She was 91 years old, and it's fair to say that she lived a good life, but not an easy one. Her father
was imprisoned after the Civil War, during Franco's dictatorship; her husband died in 1980 after a long illness;
she had to bring up her three sons by herself. And she succeeded: she was a tough woman. However, she was also the
best person I have ever met. She always took care of everyone around her, even people that didn't deserve it, and
tried to solve their problems. Thanks to her, I am a better person. And by the way, 'Amor' means 'Love' in Spanish:
she lived up to her name.
Asturies has been catalogued by the experts (I am the experts) as the best region of Spain. No wonder it has been called 'A natural paradise'.
The following are some pictures taken by myself. They don't do justice to the real beauty of the landscapes: a bad camera, and a worse photographer.
