With the aim of promoting promising early-career researchers and fostering engagement between with Members of Parliament, this annual event focuses on the presentation and discussion of groundbreaking UK-based research. A highlight of British Science Week, the competition attracts over 500 entrants, of whom approximately one third are selected to present their work at Parliament.

Damián’s research was conducted in collaboration with Dr Dionysios Anninos, University Research Fellow of the Royal Society and Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the Department of Mathematics. His presentation on the subject of ‘Quantum emergence of expanding spacetimes’ focuses on his current research efforts to build a novel theoretical framework to study quantum features in a de Sitter spacetime – which is a universe expanding at an accelerating pace. The consequences of this modern approach are just starting to be uncovered.

On the inspiration underpinning his research in collaboration with Dionysios and motivation towards the field, Damián commented:

Damián is a member of the Theoretical Physics group in King’s Department of Mathematics, whose goal is focused on discovering the consistent unified fundamental laws of nature. The group’s work is centered on supersymmetry and string theory, and includes studies on a range of subjects including the quantum properties of black holes, the symmetries underlying a fundamental theory of strings and branes, the properties of de Sitter spacetime and the quest to find exact quantities in relativistic quantum field theories.

On winning the award, Damián further elaborated;