Prof. Mario Martínez will succeed Prof. Eugenio Coccia as IFAE Director on November 1, 2026.
IFAE’s Governing Board nominated Prof. Mario Martínez as the new director of the Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) at its meeting on September 4, 2026. He will take office on November 1, 2026.
Mario Martínez is an ICREA Research Professor and has been Deputy Director of IFAE since 2023. He has been at the institute for more than two decades and has held several scientific and management responsibilities at IFAE and within major international research collaborations.
Throughout his career, Mario Martínez has held a number of scientific leadership positions at both national and international level. He served as Director of IFAE’s Experimental Division, as Scientific Manager of the Spanish High Energy Physics programme, and as Scientific Delegate of Spain at the CERN Council. Mario Martínez has also served on scientific committees at CERN, including the LHC experiments committee (LHCC). Since 2025, Mario Martínez has been the Scientific Director of IFAE’s Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence programme, which supports strategic actions in research, innovation and infrastructure to strengthen IFAE’s leadership in fundamental physics and increase its societal impact.
