Urged to learn a safe profession, Alberto started studying Electrical Engineering at the Universidad de la República in 1986. Not content with just safety, in 1987 he began pursuing astronomy studies in parallel with the engineering career at the School of Humanities and Sciences of the same university, which culminated in 1993 with a degree of Licenciado en Astronomía (the 9th Licenciado since the university began to offer a degree in Astronomy in the 1960's). During his undergraduate Alberto did research in cometary dynamics with Julio A. Fernández, and in gravitational microlensing with Emilio E. Falco.
In the same year he was accepted at Boston University for a Ph.D. in Astronomy as a Presidential University Graduate Fellow. During his Ph.D. Alberto was tutored by James M. Jackson and participated in several projects, but most of his time and effort went into SPIFI (the South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer, P.I. Gordon Stacey) and AST/RO (the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory, P. I. Antony Stark). He traveled four times to the South Pole research station and spent about a month on the ice each time.
After his doctoral dissertation defense on 18 August 2000, Alberto started an appointment as a postdoctoral scholar working in the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was subsequently hired as an Assistant Research Astronomer. He underwent a tenure review in 2006, and was promoted to Associate Researcher degree. During this time his interests and time remained divided between instrumentation development (water vapor radiometry and constructing the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy, CARMA) and "pure" science (mostly, but not limited to extragalactic research).
Deciding that it was time for a change, Alberto started applying to faculty positions in 2006, and in 2007 he was hired as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Astronomy of the University of Maryland, where he is today.
Alberto married Liliana Silvia González in 1993 and in 1999 they had a son, Nicolás Umberto. Having not learned the lesson, they relapsed in 2002 with Sebastián Marcelo. Under the illusion that they could cope with a third, they brought Sofía Eliana to the world in 2006. All are amazing children.
Electrical Engineering: Universidad de la República
(Montevideo, Uruguay, 1986-1993).
Licenciado en Astronomía: Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1993).
Advisors Prof. Julio A. Fernández and Dr. Emilio E. Falco.
M.A. in Astronomy: Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts, 1997).
Advisor Prof. James M. Jackson.
Ph.D. in Astronomy: Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts, 2000).
Advisor Prof. James M. Jackson.
Postdoctoral Scholar: University of California at Berkeley
(2000-2001). Advisor Prof. Leo Blitz.
Assistant Researcher: University of California at Berkeley
(2001-2006).
Associate Researcher: University of California at Berkeley
(2006-2007).
Assistant Professor: University of Maryland at College Park (2007).