Ignasi Fina (Ramón y Cajal Fellow) leads the Ferroelectric and Dielectric Characterization Laboratory (FEDE) and is part of the Multifunctional Thin Films and Complex Structures (MULFOX) group at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB). His research is focused on the electric, magnetoelectric and photoelectric characterization of magnetic and ferroelectric films for the development of energy efficient and neuromorphic based novel devices.
Dr. Fina defended his PhD in 2012 at the ICMAB in Barcelona. He was then a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany and University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, and also completed postdoctoral work at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). Dr Fina was awarded with the First Young Researcher Prize (2017) at the Biennial Meeting of the Spanish Physics Society for his scientific trajectory.
You can read the interview to Ignasi Fina here, to know more about how his research has evolved during the years, what aspects of his work is he most excited about, and which are the most important questions to be asked and answered in his field of research, in his opinion.
From the interview, we woud like to highlight the following part:
"Nowadays, we are in the era of scientific leaders. Thus, all early career scientists will probably feel the pressure of becoming a group leader. My advice would be to promote independence. Being an independent scientist allows you to help in some research lines led by others, but also to lead your own research lines if you are convinced that these are relevant. Becoming an independent scientist gives you the chance to take advantage of your expertise and be 100% efficient." (Ignasi Fina)
Read the Emerging Investigator Series article "Local manipulation of metamagnetism by strain nanopatterning", the news post highlighting the article "Nanoneedles to increase the capacity and robustness of digital memories" in our website and take a look at the COVER associated with this work!
About this collection
The Materials Horizons "Emerging Investigator Series" collection showcases the work being conducted by Emerging Investigators in materials science. It highlights up-and-coming scientists in the early stages of their independent careers, who have been identified as having the potential to influence future directions in the field. The collection is updated when new Emerging Investigator Series papers are published – so keep checking and watch the collection grow.
The Editorial Board selects each early-career researcher featured in the Series every month from a list of eligible articles. To be considered for the Series, corresponding authors must be at an early stage of their independent career (typically this will be within 10 years of completing their PhD, but appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break or followed a different career path).
For now the Emerging Investigators appeared are:
- Xinyu Liu, University of Toronto, Canada
- Evgeniya Sheremet, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia
- Wenhao Sun, University of Michigan, USA
- Jun Zhang, Qingdao University, China
- Prashun Gorai, Colorado School of Mines, USA
- Ignasi Fina, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona, Spain
