Director of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). CSIC Physics Research Professor. Graduated at University of Granada in 1984 and obtained his doctorate in astrophysics from the University of La Laguna in 1987. Head of the IAC Research Division between 1997 and 1999. Since 2013 serves as IAC director. He has carried out research projects in cosmology, in stellar physics and exoplanets. Co-author of over 400 research articles with more than 40,000 citations in the scientific literature.

Co-discoverer in 1995 of the first brown dwarfs (objects with properties intermediate between stars and giant planets of which there are tens of billions in our galaxy) and free-floating giant extrasolar planets in 2000. Obtained empirical evidence in 1999 of the physical connection between supernovae and black holes. He has led experimental research of the cosmic microwave background at Teide Observatory. Co-director of the high-precision spectrograph “ESPRESSO” for detecting exo-Earths with the 8 m VLT telescopes in Chile. Co-investigator of the Planck and Euclid space missions (ESA), and member of the Board of the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), the Cherenkov Telescope Array and the European Solar Telescope. He was a member of the science group of the 39 m ELT telescope,

He is corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain, Honorary Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Region of Murcia, Doctor Honoris Causa from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena. Member of the Max Planck Society and External Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. He was awarded the Iberdrola Prize of Science and Technology, the Jaime I Research Prize, the Canary Islands Research Prize, the Jules Janssen Prize of the French Astronomical Society and, more recently, the Spanish National Prize for Scientific Research.