Pablo
Herrero Gómez

Dr. Pablo Herrero Gómez is an Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Racah Institute of Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem under the supervision of Dr. Itay Shomroni.

Pablo is spearheading the development of a sensor that relies on fluorescent organic molecules to detect an individual barium ion in a xenon-filled gas chamber.

This is significant in its application to “neutrinoless double beta decay” experiments. Detecting barium, produced from the decay of 136Xe, could move these experiments into a background-free regime, greatly enhancing their precision and reliability and, in turn, validating the Majorana nature of neutrinos. This theoretical aspect has profound implications for extending the Standard Model in physics and solving the baryon asymmetry problem in cosmology. Pablo employs a combination of surface science techniques for molecule immobilization and characterization as well as optical microscopy for single-molecule fluorescence detection.

Pablo was born in Teruel, Spain. He obtained his BSc in physics at the University of Valencia and his MSc at the University of Heidelberg. He then went on to complete his PhD at the University of the Basque Country under the supervision of Dr. Francesc Monrabal and Prof. Celia Rogero, participating in the experiments that lay the ground for developing a barium sensor for the NEXT experiment. His interest in scientific outreach has led him to produce and help producing 3D animations and videos about his research. In his free time, Pablo enjoys learning languages, producing music, and playing sports.