The PhD thesis was supervised by Núria Aliaga and Arántzazu González from the Functional Nanomaterials & Surfaces (FunNanoSurf) group at ICMAB-CSIC.

The PhD Committee that evaluated the Thesis was formed by María Concepción Domingo Pascual, ICMAB-CSIC (President), Maria Isabel Romero Garcia, Universitat de Girona (UdG) (Secretary) and Alessandro Sorrenti, Universitat de Barcelona (UB) (Vocal).

Doctor Daniel Riba's PhD thesis was part of the PhD Programme in Chemistry from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Doctor Daniel Riba at his PhD Thesis Defense | ICMAB, CSIC

Why did you choose ICMAB for your PhD?

I wanted to change the environment from the University of Barcelona and I thought it would be a challenge to do the PhD in a materials institute

How would you explain your research to a non-scientific audience?

My research consists in creating some molecules to put them over certain surfaces to see if they can conduct the electricity.

What are the main applications of your research? Could you give us an example?

My research could be interesting for the creation of a small device used as a field-effect transistor that can be placed in a chip to substitute the already known silicon-based chips. Due to the high demanding increment of chips that have to be every time smaller in size, faster and cheap, our project could possibly promote this three demanding factors.

Daniel Riba with the PhD Committee and the supervisors | ICMAB, CSIC

From the lessons learnt here, which one do you value the most?

Patience, eventhough sometimes it is difficult you have to persevere in your goals.

What will you miss the most from ICMAB?

The friends that I have done over these years.

How do you think this experience will contribute to your training and to your future?

I have a better understanding of the work in the laboratory.

What are your plans once you finish your PhD?

Looking for a job in a company.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your PhD, that you can recommend to the ones who are starting?

There are some things that sometimes are not working, don't worry about those things and think more possibilities to overcome the issues that you can encounter.

Why did you become a scientist? Who have been your role models?

My parents are both scientists, so I think I have been influenced by them.

Let us know who are your favourite scientists (man and woman). Why?

Stephen Hawking, eventhough he suffered a lot in life he was able to become one of the most important scientists in history.

Daniel Riba in the center with his two supervisors, Arántzazu González and Núria Aliaga | ICMAB, CSIC

Congratulations, Doctor Daniel Riba!

More information and photos.