Francisco (Paco) Colomer (Valencia, 1966) is director of JIVE, the Joint Institute for VLBI, a European Research Infrastructure hosted by ASTRON/NWO in Dwingeloo (the Netherlands). Colomer earned his PhD in astrophysics by Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) on the study of masers in extended atmospheres of evolved stars, and is MBA on “Management of Research Infrastructures” by University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy). He is permanent staff of the National Astronomical Observatory in Spain. During his career, he has participated in more than 100 scientific papers, numerous conferences and workshops, international projects (also financed by the European Commission programs), and outreach activities.
JIVE is the central organization of the European VLBI Network, a collaboration of more than 20 radio telescopes distributed around the world, that operate together to achieve the highest detailed observations of cosmic objects that exist. The data of this global network is collected and processed at JIVE, where also users of the research infrastructure are supported. JIVE partners are seven countries: the Netherlands (host), Spain, France, Sweden, Latvia, Italy and United Kingdom; JIVE also gets support from institutes in Germany, South Africa and China.
Colomer defends basic scientific research as a cultural asset in our society, to which results and processes must be properly communicated, so policies and decisions are based on facts and knowledge.
He is the current chair of the ERIC Forum.