Mario Cepeda
Papers
1
Total Citations
7
H-Index
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About
Mario Cepeda is an instrumentation scientist whose work has been essential to the development of next-generation cosmological surveys. His primary research focuses on the design and precision engineering of fiber-optic positioning systems for multi-object spectrographs, a critical technology for mapping the universe at unprecedented scale. Cepeda’s most cited work, “Design and performance of an R-θ fiber positioner for the BigBOSS instrument” (2012, 7 citations), details the mechanical architecture of a key component for what would become the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). This positioner design enabled the precise, robotic placement of thousands of optical fibers to capture light from individual galaxies and quasars. By solving the engineering challenges of densely packing and rapidly moving these fibers, Cepeda’s contribution directly supported BigBOSS’s ambitious goal of surveying 10–20 times the volume of previous studies and mapping the expansion history of the universe over 8 billion years. His work represents a foundational piece of the instrumentation that now powers one of the most impactful dark energy experiments in astronomy.
Research Focus
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