Terrassa held on 6-7 March 2019 the first edition of the "Women, Science and Technology" (WSciTech19) Conference (Congrés de Dones, Ciència i Tecnologia) and the "Châtelet team" at ICMAB presented their dramatised lecture "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers" as a tool to visibilize the wise women in the history of science. Susagna Ricart and Anna May, in representation of the team, presented a Poster, and an Oral Communication, which resulted in a fantastic colloquium.

• A recently published study presents a new method to prevent infection by plant pathogens using bacterial cellulose and silver nanoparticles hybrid patches
• The study is the result of the collaborative work between two research groups belonging to ICMAB and CRAG, both Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence at the UAB Campus

Dr.Sílvia Illa, former PhD researcher under the supervision of Dr. Jordi Faraudo (Theory and Simulation group at ICMAB) and Dr. Swapans K. Pati (Theoretical Science Unit, JNCASR, India), defended her PhD thesis entitled "Molecular Modelling of Quatsome nanovesicles" publicly on 28 February 2019 at the ICMAB-CSIC Auditorium. We have interviewed her to know a little bit more about her PhD and her life at the ICMAB!

David C. Malaspina, Leonor Pérez-Fuentes, Carlos Drummond, Delfi Bastos-González, Jordi Faraudo. Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science. Volume 41, June 2019, Pages 40-49.

A technology developed by a team led by Dr. Núria Crivillers, researcher at the Nanomol Group at ICMAB, has been selected as a high potential innovation by the European Union (EU).

We are looking for a photonics expert to participate in the integration of large area and inexpensive photonic architectures (plasmonic structures, photonic crystals, etc.) in optoelectronic devices to boost their performance through exciting photonic properties. Deadline: the sooner the better. 

Michele Amato, Stefano Ossicini, Enric Canadell, and Riccardo Rurali. Nano Lett., Just Accepted Manuscript

Sign in for the GoNano Innovation and Co-Creation Workshop on "Nanotechnology for Energy" that will take place in Barcelona, on 7 March 2019, organized under the EU project GoNano and hosted by RMIT Europe. If you are interested in co-creating and fins solutions in nanotechnology for the future energy challenge, don't miss it!

The PhD Researcher Laia Soler Bru from the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) Group at ICMAB will defend her PhD thesis on Friday, 1 March 2019, at 11 am at ICMAB-CSIC. 

Raquel Pruna, Manel López and Francesc Teixidor*. Nanoscale, 2019,11, 276-284. DOI:10.1039/C8NR07908K

On Friday, 1 February 2019, students from the Centre d'Estudis Roca school, in Barcelona, came to the ICMAB to discover the materials of the future in solar energy! The visit consisted in a first talk from Mariano Campoy-Quiles, researcher at the ICMAB, followed by a visit to four different labs: SEM, XRD, AFM and NANOPTO labs. The visit is in the framework of the ESCOLAB programme of the Ajuntament de Barcelona. 

Hi there! I´m Natalia, and I come from Valdefuentes del Páramo, a little village in León, Spain. I studied my Bachelor in Biotechnology at the University of León, and now I'm studying the Master in Advanced Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at UAB. Here at ICMAB I am working on my master's thesis on bacterial nanocellulose as bioactive wound dressing with the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites group. In my free time I like to play the (electric) guitar with my band, going out and exploring the places nearby. I also enjoy a lot doing outdoor activities.

See you around!

Berta Gumí-Audenis, Sílvia Illa-Tuset, Natascia Grimaldi, Laia Pasquina-Lemonche, Lidia Ferrer-Tasies, Fausto Sanz, Jaume Veciana, Imma Ratera, Jordi Faraudo,* Nora Ventosa* and  Marina I. Giannotti*.  Nanoscale, 2018,10, 23001-23011.  DOI:10.1039/C8NR07110A

Hi!! I'm Marimar, a 23 years old chemical engineer. I'm from Alcoy, a really beautiful city of Alicante. I'm doing an internship with the Severo Ochoa fellowship and studying the master Science and Engineering of Materials at UPC Campus Diagonal–Besòs (Barcelona). I like sports and dance. I have danced ballet since I was 6 years old. In my free time I used to go hiking in the mountains or train for trails. Currently, as I live in Barcelona city, I’m trying to run, but I ‘ll tell you know about my process. I'm also very creative. I love designing clothes and doing all kinds of crafts. To sum up, I love being always busy with new and interesting things.

I hope to get to know everyone, see you around!!!

Mayte Gómez-Castaño, Hanbin Zheng, Juan Luis Garcia-Pomar, Renaud Vallée, Agustin Mihi and Serge Ravaine. Nanoscale Adv., 2019, Accepted Manuscript. 

We heard with great sadness that Dominique Givord, CNRS researcher in Grenoble, passed away this week. Many researchers from the ICMAB collaborated with him and worked directly with him. Dominique contributed to the build of the ICMAB by inspiring many of our research activities and research lines, supporting young scientists and advising us on the big challenges of magnetic materials, as required by our modern and future society. His loss is felt by many of us.

Between January and March, the CSIC Residència d'Investigadors hosts another cycle of "Science Mondays" (Dilluns de Ciència) related to energy and the climate: Canvis energètics en favor del clima. 

The PhD Researcher Sílvia Illa Tuset from the Materials Simulation and Theory Group at ICMAB will defend her PhD thesis on Thursday, 28 February 2019, at 11 am at ICMAB-CSIC. 

From 7 to 11 February, Barcelona will be the City of Science. The Biennal Ciència i Ciutat will fill the city with activities related with science: talks, debates, roundables, exhibitions, etc. The ICMAB will also participate by collaborating in two roundtables about Chemistry and Health, and Chemistry and Bateries (8 Feb, Cosmocaixa). You cannot miss it! Take a look at the extense programme, there is something for you, for sure!

The Seminars and Training Committee kindly invites you to the following ICMAB Invited Seminar:

Charge generation in organic photovoltaic devices: Could coherence contribute?

by Olle Inganäs, Professor emeritus, Biomolecular and organic electronics, Dept.Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

Friday, 15 March 2019 @ 12 pm
ICMAB - Sala d'Actes Carles Miravitlles

J. Moral-Vico, N. Casañ-Pastor, A. Camón, C. Pobes, R. M. Jáudenes, P. Strichovanec, L. Fàbrega. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Volume 832, 1 January 2019, Pages 40-47.

On 7-8 March 2019, the VI Strategic Immersion of the Advanced Materials Cluster (Cluster MAV), in collaboration with ACCIÓ, took place in Sitges. Our Technology Transfer Officer, Alfonso del Rey, attented the event, which main aim was to know the main trends and world challenges in the advanced materials field. 

• The device is composed of cellulose produced in the laboratory by bacteria, with small amounts of carbon nanotubes, resulting very sustainable
• The device could be used to generate electricity in wearables, in medical and sports applications, and as intelligent thermal insulator

A broad and comprehensive review on thermoelectric materials has been published in "Materials Science and Engineering: R: Reports", a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier established in 1993 with an impact factor of more than 25! The review, with 47 pages, includes the participation of Mariano Campoy-Quiles and Bernhard Dörling from the ICMAB-CSIC, and 12 more institutions around the world (Italy, USA, UK, Germany, Sweden and Spain). 

Hello everyone!!!
My name is María del Carmen Luzardo. I come from La Habana, Cuba. There, I am fulltime professor at the University of Habana (UH) else I`m researcher in the Center of Molecular Immunology (CIM), in Havana city. We have one laboratory inside this BioCubaFarma industry (Lab. UH-CIM). My expertise: physic-chemical characterization of liposomes containing proteins in order to study their properties as adjuvants and immune-modulators in preclinical assays. This is my first time in Spain.I want to thank NanoOligoMed proyect and the Dr. Nora Ventosa and Dr. Marilyn Lanio (Cuba) for give me this opportunity as post-doc of the ICMAB

 

R. Cichelero, M. A. Oskuei, M.Kataja, S. M. Hamidi, G.Herranz. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. Volume 476, 15 April 2019, Pages 54-58

Dr. Laia Soler, former PhD researcher under the supervision of Prof. Xavier Obradors and Dr. Susagna Ricart (Superconducting and Large Scale Nanostructures group at ICMAB) defended her PhD thesis entitled "Liquid-assisted ultrafast growth of superconducting films derived from chemical solutions" publicly on 1 March 2019 at the ICMAB-CSIC Auditorium. We have interviewed her to know a little bit more about her PhD and her life at the ICMAB!

Brookhaven National Laboratory is looking for a Post-Doctoral Research Associate for the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering (CSX) beamline. The successful candidate will lead experiments on innovative 2D artificial structures in collaboration with Harvard University and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at BNL.

I am Bea, from Tortosa, a small town in Baix Ebre. I am a last year Nanoscience and Nanotechnology student. I just joined the Molecular Nanoscience and Organic Materials group, and I will be studying the physico-chemical properties of different quatsomes with medical therapy applications.
I enjoy sports, mostly swimming, I love going to the theater and of course I go travelling whenever I can!

 

Tomoko K. Shimizu, Sabine Maier, Albert Verdaguer, Juan-Jesus Velasco-Velez, Miquel Salmeron. Progress in Surface Science. Volume 93, Issue 4, December 2018, Pages 87-107

Carlos Frontera, researcher at ICMAB and member of the Gender Equality Committee of the ICMAB, attended on February 14-15, 2019, the European project LIBRA workshop to share experiences on “How to design, implement and follow-up a Gender Equality Plan”.

A new laser-based technique developed by the Institute of Materials Science (ICMAB-CSIC) uses urea, a common substance in the chemical industry and a low-cost alternative to noble metal co-catalysts, to enable a more efficient, one-step production of hybrid graphene-based organic-inorganic composite layers for environmental remediation; photodegradation of antibiotic contaminants from wastewater. The composition and chemical bonds of the urea-enriched thin layers were studied in detail using synchrotron light at the ALBA Synchrotron.

M. Foerster, N. Statuto, B. Casals, A. Hernández-Mínguez, S. Finizio, A. Mandziak, L. Aballe, J. M. Hernàndez Ferràs and F. Macià. J. Synchrotron Rad. (2019). 26

Xavier Obradors, ICMAB Director, gave a talk to the CMES group (Col·lectiu per a un Nou Model Energètic i Social Sostenible) on February 4, 2019. You can watch here the entire conference, which is on Youtube:

On Monday, 4 February 2019, the Paranimf of the Universitat de Barcelona hosted the 7th edition of the Interdisciplinary Meeting of Predoctoral Researchers (JIPI, Jornada d'Investigadors Predoctorals Interdisciplinària), organized by PhD fellows and supported by many entities and organizations, including the ICMAB-CSIC. M. Rosa Palacin was invited in the closing session of the event, in which some of our ICMAB PhD researchrers participated. 

Hi! I am Aleix Borrella, a 21 years old undergraduate student in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology. I am from Vilafranca del Penedès, a small lovely town close to Barcelona, and I will join the Solid State Chemistry group to study an alloy between graphene and polymers for 3D printing as part of my final degree project

 

Miquel Torras, PhD fellow at the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites (NN) group, received on 29 January 2019 the Extraordinary Award for his Master in Applied Materials Chemistry at the University of Barcelona (UB) (2016-2017).

Arántzazu González, researcher from the ICMAB-CSIC, went on 11 February to a Primary School (Can Maiol) to talk to the students and visibilize women scientists, within the initative "Nuestras científicas: Jornada de investigadoras actuales y futuras" of the CSIC-Catalunya. The initiative appeared on the TVE1 news programme "L'informatiu" at 2 pm on 11 February 2019. Look at it here, from minute 16:04! 

The CSIC Delegation in Catalunya wants to contribute to the promotion of scientific vocations in young girls, and facilitate the contact between them and the scientists from the nearby research centers. For this reason, an educational action in the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) is organized, consisting on school visits by some CSIC researchers, who will explain their research projects and their life as a scientist to primary school students.

On Tuesday, 29 January 2019, the Welcome Day of the Doctoral Training Programme in Functional Advanced Materials (DOC-FAM) First Call Fellows took place at the ICMAB. The DOC-FAM is a H2020-MSCA-COFUND project coordinated by ICMAB-CSIC in collaboration with four partner research institutions from the area: IMB-CNM, IREC, ALBA Synchrotron and ICN2. In this first call, 10 PhD Fellows from all around the world have started their research training programme within these institutions. Meet them here! 

P. O. Vaccaro, M. I. Alonso, M. Garriga, J. Gutiérrez, D. Peró, M. R. Wagner, J. S. Reparaz, C. M. Sotomayor Torres, X. Vidal, E. A. Carter, P. A. Lay, M. Yoshimoto, and A. R. Goñi. AIP Advances 8, 115131 (2018)

The Seminars and Training Committee kindly invites you to the following ICMAB Invited Seminar:

Synthetic DNA-based nanodevices for sensing applications

by Alessandro Porchetta,Department of Chemistry, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy

Thursday, 7 March 2019 @ 12 pm
ICMAB - Sala d'Actes Carles Miravitlles

Each year on 4 February, World Cancer Day empowers all the world to show support, raise their voices, take personal action and press the governments to do more. We would like to show you our projects on cancer research. Take a look at our projects!

On Thursday, 14 March 2019, the ICMAB hosts the workshop on Gender Equality in Research Centers entitled "¿Y a mí, qué me aporta la igualdad?". The workshop is aimed for all the ICMAB staff (scientific, technical, administration, students...) and will take place from 8:45 am to 2 pm. Don't miss this opportunity to learn and interact with your colleagues about this topic that affects all of us!  

The ICMAB will be present at the Conference about women, science and technology "Dones, Ciència i Tecnologia" presenting our dramatised lecture "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers" as a tool to enhance the visibility of the role of women scientists throughout history. 

The E-MAGIC (European Magnesium Interactive Battery Community) research project is a European H2020 FET-PROACTIVE recently funded with 6.5 million euros. Its aim is to develop new magnesium-based batteries, more powerful, cheaper and safer than lithium-ion ones. The project could pave the way for the establishment of a competitive battery cell production landscape in Europe.

This next Thursday, 31 January 2019 at 7 pm, Susagna Ricart, researcher at the Superconducting and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group, and also member of the "Madame Châtelet" cast, will give a talk to visibilize brave women of history. 

D. F. Coral, P. A. Soto, V. Blank, A. Veiga, E. Spinelli, S. Gonzalez, G. P. Saracco, M. A. Bab, D. Muraca, P. C. Setton-Avruj, A. Roig, L. Roguin and M. B. Fernández van Raap. Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 21262-21274.