Awards

On 3 July 2018, CaixaForum Barcelona hosted the ceremony to deliver the INPhINIT "la Caixa" doctorate program fellowships.

Between 18 and 22 June 2018, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington (UK) hosted the 6th WMRIF Workshop for Early Career Scientists. From ICMAB, Roberta Verrelli, Francesca Leonardi and Ignasi Fina attended the workshop, which concentrated on exceptional early career scientists in World Materials Research Institute Forum (WMRIF) institutes with the goals of network building, and knowledge and experience exchange, along with the chance to examine facilities of the host institute. 

Three ICMAB researchers have been granted with a Ramon y Cajal grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.

Five ICMAB graduates from the PhD programme in Materials Science received the PhD Extraordinary Award for their doctoral thesis developed during the period 2014-2015. The award ceremony took place on May 18, 2018, at 6 pm, at the Hotel Campus UAB. Laura Cabana Jiménez, Pedro López-Aranguren Oliver, Nerea Murillo Cremaes, David Pesquera Herrero and Albert Queraltó López were recognised for their PhD dissertations.  

Arnau Bertran Inglada, who did his bachelor's thesis at ICMAB under the supervision of Gerard Tobias (ICMAB, Solid State Chemistry Group) and Àlvar Sánchez (UAB, Physics Dept) has been awarded with the "Premi Sant Jordi 2018" of the Societat Catalana de Química (SCQ-IEC) for his work entitled "Òxid de grafè reduït decorat amb nanopartícules d’òxid de ferro. Síntesi, caracterització i estudi magnètic" (Reduced graphene oxide decorated with iron oxide nanoparticles. Synthesis, characterization and magnetic study). 

The awardees with the Premis Ciutat de Barcelona 2017 have been known on February 1, 2018. The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, February 15, at the Saló de Cent, in a ceremony presided by Ada Colau, and conducted by the journalist Eva Arderius. Prof. Xavier Obradors, ICMAB Director, was member of the jury in the category "Experimental Sciences and Technology".

A large number of ICMAB researchers are among those researchers in Spain with high h-index in many different disciplines: Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, Crystallography, Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Multidisciplinary Chemistry, and Multidisciplinary Materials Science, according to the Web of Science. 

The website h-webcindario (http://indice-h.webcindario.com) from GRUPO DIH, which compiles the h-index numbers from the researchers based in Spain, has done now the yearly update The h-index numbers are collected from the Web of Science ISI website, which is of free access for the research centers through FECYT.

Dr. Ignasi Fina has been recently awarded with a collaborative project, funded by "la Caixa" Foundation, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-SPAIN "la Caixa" Foundation SEED FUND). The project is focused on the investigation of new materials for photovoltaic applications. The aim is to study the use of a new kind of material, called a ferroelectric semiconductor, that may offer a powerful mechanism to convert sunlight into electricity.

On December 2017, Dr. Enric Canadell, Research Professor at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB), became elected member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (RACAB). Two other researchers from CSIC, Dr. Xavier Querol (IDAEA-CSIC), and Dr. Francesc Piferrer (ICM-CSIC) were also elected, together with Dra. Fàtima Bosch (UAB) and Dr. Roderic Guigó (CRG). Finally, Dra. Fabiola Gianotti (CERN) was elected as correspondent member. 

Dr. Mariona Coll, researcher at ICMAB, and Prof. Xavier Obradors, ICMAB Director, attended the awards ceremony of the L'Oréal-UNESCO Research Awards in Madrid. Mariona was awarded with one of the five awards for her project on the research of new materials for efficient conversion of solar energy. 

As we already announced on July 2017, Mariona Coll, researcher at the Institute of Materials Science (ICMAB) in the SUMAN group, has been awarded with the Research Award L'Oréal-Unesco "For Women in Science" 2017. The awards ceremony took place this last Wednesday, 22 November, in Madrid. Mariona will receive 15.000 € that will be invested in her research project which "can contribute to one of the most important challenges of this century: find a new energy system for the production of clean energy". 

As already announced in July 2017, on Tuesday 3rd October, Pof. Anna Roig received the Albus Award 2017, by Grifols, to develop her project on "Albumin iron-oxide nanocages". The Awards Ceremony took place at the Grifols Museum, which is located in the same building where the Grifols company started their activities, in 1940. 

Laia Soler, PhD researcher at the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures (SUMAN) group, won the Best Young Researchers Presentation at the European Conference on Applied Superconductors 2017 (EUCAS) in the section "Materials".

Màrius Tarrés Schüler, who did his PhD in the Inorganic Materials and Catalysis Laboratory, at ICMAB, under the supervision of Prof. Francesc Teixidor, has been awarded with the PhD special prize award (Premi Extraordinari de Doctorat) of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). 

Jose Muñoz, who did his PhD at the UAB, and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow in the NANOMOL group at ICMAB, under the supervision of Dr. Marta Mas and Dr. Núria Crivillers, has been awarded with the PhD special prize award (Premi Extraordinari de Doctorat) of the UAB. 

The article "Bottom-up approach for the preparation of hybrid nanosheets based on coordination polymers made of metal–diethyloxaloacetate complexes linked by 4,4′-bipyridine" published in CrystEngComm by Ana López-Periago et al. has been considered as HOT ARTICLE in this journal. 

One manuscript from Prof. Clara Viñas and her team has been chosen to be highlighted on the ChemistryViews website. The manuscript chosen is "Small-Molecule Kinase-Inhibitors-Loaded Boron Cluster as Hybrid Agents for Glioma-Cell-Targeting Therapy", published in Chemistry-A European Journal, and already qualified as Hot Paper and Frontispiece of the journal.

We are very happy to announce that, out of a total of 57 PhD positions offered by the INPhINIT doctoral fellowship for outstanding early-stage researchers, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) will welcome three new PhD students, placing the Institute fourth among the 28 centres that were chosen.

We are very happy to announce that Andrés Gómez and Guillermo de Andrés have been selected as finalists with their project “BRIDG3D: Imprimiendo puentes en 3D” in the XVIII Edition of "Cienca en Acción" in the category "Science and Technology". The FINAL will take place in Izarra Centre in Ermua (Vizcaya, Basque Country) from 6 to 8 October 2017. 

We are very happy to announce that Mariona Coll, ICMAB researcher at the Superconducting Materials and Large Scale Nanostructures group (SUMAN), has been awarded with one of the Research Awards L'Oréal-Unesco "For Women in Science" in the 2017 Call for her project "Nanochemistry: New materials for the efficient conversion of solar energy".

Anna Roig has been awarded with the Albus Award 2017, one of the Scientific Awards offered by Grifols, the pharmaceutical and chemical multinational company. The Award consists of 50,000 € to carry out the project "Albumin-iron oxide nanocages". 

Ignasi Fina, Postoctoral Researcher at the MULFOX group at ICMAB, has been awarded with the First Prize of the Young Researchers Award - Postdoctoral Researchers category, for his contribution to the XXXXI Biennial Meeting of the RSEF (Real Sociedad Española de Física) 2017 and for his excellent research career. 

A group of researchers lead by Dr. Clara Viñas, from the Inoganic Mateials & Catalysis Laboratory group at ICMAB, has recently published a paper on Chemistry-A European Journal that has been qualified as Hot Paper and, moreover, it's cover has become a Frontispiece. 

Dr. Enric Canadell, Dr. Anna Laromaine, Dr. Jaume Veciana and Dr. Clara Viñas, awarded during 2016-2017 by external institutions for their Scientific Merits, have been acknowledged by the CSIC on July 5, 2017, at the CSIC Auditorium in Madrid. 

Dr. José M. Muñoz and Dr. Francesca Leonardi, from the NANOMOL group, have been granted with a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship to continue their postdoctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Marta Mas-Torrent.

Manuel Souto has won the first runner-up doctorate NANOMOLMAT 2016 award, granted by the Specialized Group in Nanoscience and Molecular Materials (NANOMATMOL) from the RSEQ and RSEF, to the best PhD theses of 2016.

Imma Moros participated in September-October 2016 at the VII edition of the "Management and Direction Formation Course" in Madrid, organized by the CSIC. 

The association Mujeres & Cía has revealed, on June 21 in Madrid, the list of the most influential women talents of Spain. Among them there are athletes, businesswomen, politicians, journalists, and a researcher from ICMAB: Anna Laromaine.

Jordi Martínez, from the SUMAN group, has been awarded with the second prize for his poster, abstract and oral presentation entitled "Uncovering the surface chemistry of LnF3 nanoparticles" during the "Jornades Doctorals 2017" organized by the Chemistry Department of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

Last night, on May 24, Xavier Obradors received the Ambassador Award from the Regió 7 daily journal. Neus Munté, Minister of Presidency and government spokesperson, delivered the award. 

 Prof. Josep Fontcuberta was nominated IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Lecturer during 2016. During all this time he has visited more than 56 cities across the 4 continents and has given 60 seminars on "The magnetism of oxides".

On April 22, Dr. Jaume Veciana received a Mention of Honor from the current President of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, during the celebration of the X Anniversary of the Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery “Jesus Usón” for his commitment, effort and dedication in the creation of the Singular Scientific Technological Infrastructures (ICTS) NANBIOSIS, in collaboration with the Center for Biomedical Research Center in Bioingeneering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN).

• ICMAB is the first in the ranking among the CSIC centers, and the fourth among the research centers in Catalonia and Spain
• CSIC is the first research institute in Spain, and is ranked in the top 10 research institutes in Europe, and in the top 50 of the world