About
Dr Ricardo Torres is a Research Impact Officer for the Zero-G AstroLab in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and for the Condatis team in the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour. He drives efforts to maximise the research outputs, impact, and visibility of both groups. For Zero-G AstroLab, he leads outreach activities and industry engagement in planetary defence and space engineering. For the Condatis project, he is developing an Impact Case Study in the field of landscape ecology.
Ricardo began his research career at the Institute of Chemical Physics of the Spanish Research Council in Madrid. He received his PhD in Physics from Universidad Complutense de Madrid in 2003. He then joined the Department of Physics at Imperial College London as a postdoctoral research assistant, conducting theoretical and experimental research on strong laser–field interactions with molecules. During this time, he also undertook research visits and experiments at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK), the Instituto Politecnico di Milano (Italy), and RIKEN (Japan).
In 2010, he moved to Centro de Láseres Pulsados in Spain, where he became Head of the Scientific Division. There, he led research on laser-driven ion acceleration, supervised postgraduate students, and managed medium- and large-scale European projects.
Ricardo joined the University of Liverpool in 2015 as a Project Manager for the particle accelerators group in the Department of Physics. He managed two EU-funded Marie Curie Training Networks as well as the AWAKE-UK project, and he led outreach and dissemination activities for the Cockcroft Institute, the plasma accelerator project EuPRAXIA, and the Future Circular Collider project.
Since November 2025, he has served as Research Impact Officer for two research groups in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour.
Throughout his career, Ricardo has developed broad and diverse expertise in all aspects of academic research. His current interests include research and training, science dissemination, impact, and innovative outreach.