Enectalí Figueroa-Feliciano

Enectalí "Tali" Figueroa-Feliciano (born 1971) is a Puerto Rican physicist and professor at Northwestern University who pioneers the development and application of transition edge sensor (TES) detectors to experiments for detecting dark matter, neutrino interactions, and for X-ray astronomy.

Early years Figueroa-Feliciano was born in 1971 in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, which is located on the western coast of the island. After he graduated in 1989 from high school C.R.O.E.M. (Centro Residencial de Opportunidades Educativas en Mayaguez), he attended the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and, in 1995, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering. He has received several NASA awards for the development and demonstration of position-sensitive x-ray microcalorimeters. In September 2003, Figueroa-Feliciano was interviewed for the position of Astronaut candidate.

Awards and distinctions

Figueroa-Feliciano was awarded a NSF Early Career Development Grant while at MIT. He is a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow.

Career and Research

Figueroa-Feliciano is an associate professor of physics at Northwestern University. His current research goals include the search for dark matter (both directly and indirectly), the study of neutrino-nucleon scattering, and X-ray astronomy. His work on dark matter was featured in the 2008 NOVA scienceNOW program "Dark Matter" on PBS. In 2010, he received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Selected publications by Figueroa-Feliciano Figueroa-Feliciano has contributed to the following publications as author or co-author: Position-sensitive low-temperature detectors; E. Figueroa-Feliciano. Invited review in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research pp. 496–501, 2004. Cryogenic Microcalorimeters, M. Galeazzi and E. Figueroa-Feliciano. Contributed chapter in .X-ray Spectrometry: Recent Technological Advances; John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Position-sensitive transition edge sensor modeling and results; C. Hammock, E. Figueroa-Feliciano, E. Apodaca, S. Bandler, K. Boyce, J. Chervenak, F. Finkbeiner, R. Kelley, M. Lindeman, S. Porter, T. Saab, and C. Stahle. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research; pp. 505–507, 2004.