Fernando J. Ballesteros

Fernando J. Ballesteros Roselló is currently the Head of Instrumentation of the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Valencia. He worked on the design and development of the gamma-ray space telescope INTEGRAL of the ESA, currently in orbit around the Earth and the LEGRI space telescope aboard Minisat 01 (INTA). Later on, his interest evolved into astrobiology and exoplanets.

With a extense experience in popularization of science, he won the PRISMA award in 2016 for his book “Fractales y Caos, la aventura de la complejidad” and the European ‘Estudi General’ award for popular science in 2006 for his book “Gramáticas Extraterrestres”. He is also scriptwritter of several science popularization documentaries, winning two of them a national award: “Eclipses & Transits” (“Ciencia en Acción” award in 2007), and “Let there be mass” (Centro Nacional de Física de Partículas award in 2013), and a third one, “Arco de choque”, won an international award in the SciOn film festival (Reno, Nevada, 2016).

Co-author of the science popularization program “Los Sonidos de la Ciencia”, broadcasted by Radio Nacional de España during the years 2005 to 2008, he has also written nearly a hundred science popularization articles.