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El Laboratori de la Neu és un projecte conjunt entre l'ICMAB-CSIC, Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) i l’empresa TechnoAlpin, líder en tecnologia d’innivació. Compta també amb el suport financer dels fons Next Generation EU, atorgat per l'Agencia Estatal de Investigación. Aquest projecte pioner al món té com a objectiu principal estudiar l’aplicació d’una nova tecnologia per a produir neu d’una manera més sostenible, amb menys temps, utilitzant menys aigua i amb menys energia. Desenvolupada amb èxit en laboratori pel Dr. Albert Verdaguer, científic titular a l’ICMAB, i l’equip de TechnoAlpin mitjançant l’aplicació de les últimes tècniques de producció amb equip tecnològicament innovadors, les proves es traslladaran ara a estacions d’FGC Turisme en condicions i entorn reals.

Researchers at the UAB and ICMAB-CSIC have succeeded in bringing wireless technology to the fundamental level of magnetic devices. The emergence and control of magnetic properties in cobalt nitride layers (initially non-magnetic) by voltage, without connecting the sample to electrical wiring, published in Nature Communications, represents a paradigm shift that can facilitate the creation of magnetic nanorobots for biomedicine and computing systems where basic information management processes do not require wiring.

Teresa Puig and Joffre Gutierrez of the Superconducting Materials and Nanostructure at Large Scale (SUMAN) group will contribute to the advancement of quantum technologies for the search for dark matter axions.

The ALBA Synchrotron and the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) have opened a new laboratory addressed to study batteries and high temperature superconductors. The new facility, located at the ALBA Synchrotron premises, enables users of ALBA, including the important community of CSIC researchers, to significantly optimize experiments involving synchrotron light. The project was jointly funded by the CSIC PTI+ TransEner, funded by the European NextGeneration funds and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and ALBA.

Guasch's team's innovative work on hybrid hydrogels, enabling 3D cell cultures for cancer research applications, has been selected by the CaixaImpulse Innovation Programme to facilitate its introduction to the market.

Companys, col·laboradors i amics del Carles Miravitlles es trobaran el pròxim dimarts a l'ICMAB per recordar la figura del fundador de l'Institut, que ens va deixar el passat abril. 

The short course will delve into orbitronics, the latest approach to understanding and exploiting angular momentum transport in solids. Both in-person and online registrations will be open from October 16th to November 20th, 2023.

The featured article on the cover of Small, titled "Ratiometric Nanothermometer Based on a Radical Excimer for In Vivo Sensing" and led by Jaume Veciana and Imma Ratera from the Nanomol-Bio Group (ICMAB, CIBER-BBN) and their team, investigates organic nanoparticles based on persistent TTM radicals. In vivo experiments demonstrate that these nanoparticles function as ratiometric nanothermometers, showing significant promise in the field of biological thermometry.

The research article titled "Boron clusters (ferrabisdicarbollides), shaping the future as radiosensitizers for multimodal (chemo/radio/PBFR) therapy of glioblastoma," has been selected for the 'Most Popular' collection in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

In their recent ARA newspaper article titled "Fusió nuclear: utopia o realitat?" (Nuclear Fusion: Utopia or Reality?), researchers Xavier Obrador and Teresa Puig provide a comprehensive overview of the international pursuit of a functional nuclear fusion reactor.

Núria Aliaga-Alcalde and Martí Gich have been honoured with European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept (PoC) grants valued at €150,000 each.

The cover illustrates the review "Direct Bottom-Up In Situ Growth: A Paradigm Shift for Studies in Wet-Chemical Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles" published in Chemical Reviews. 

On Monay, 10 July 2023, the ICMAB hosts a memorial event in the memory of Prof. Pablo Etchegoin(1964-2013), Argentine-New Zealand physicist.

June is known around the world as the LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in June 1969 that started an LGBTQIA+ rights movement. It is internationally celebrated with marches, exhibitions, parades and festivals.

EmErgEnt Award from the Efficient Energy Cluster in Catalunya (Clúster de l’Energia Eficient de Catalunya, CEEC) in the "Llavor" category for a patented instrument at ICMAB to optimize photovoltaic cells.

The Seminars and Training Committee kindly invites you to the following Periodical Lecture on very thin and small carbon materials:

The #JPhD2023, an event entirely organized by PhD fellows, grows larger with each edition, surpassing the 110 participants!

The complete collection of CSIC Scientific Challenges: towards 2030, the CSIC White Paper formed by 14 volumes, is now available on paper in our ICMAB Manuel Cardona library (and available for loan), in the handbooks section. 

The new APL Energy journal is presented to the ICN2, ICMAB and IMB-CNM community on Tuesday, 6 June 2023.

APL Energy is a new gold open access journal from AIP Publishing featuring research related to energy, applications of energy storage and conversion, energy sources and materials, and renewable energy and sustainability. The journal also considers research that addresses the environmental impacts of energy technologies.

Come to this morning session and discover this new opportunity: a new journal and some tips to publish and increase the impact of your research.

On 15 May 2023, the first call for doctoral contracts within the DocFam+ (Doctoral training programme in Functional Advanced Materials) MSCA-COFUND coordinated by ICMAB-CSIC will open. 

DocFam+ is a 5-year doctoral training programme in Functional Advanced Materials presented by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and coordinated through the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) in collaboration with several partner research institutions from the region, six of them contributing to the co-funding of the programme: Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (IMB-CNM-CSIC), Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), High Energy Physics Institute (IFAE), Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and ALBA Synchrotron.

Find out more about the UAB's MSc and PhDs at the fair organized on 22-26 May 2023 at the UAB. 

This year the recommended books are the ones that they just read and liked. The list is very diverse, you will find graphic novels, science fiction, travel books, science fiction and much more.

Enjoy the read and happy Sant Jordi!

By the way, do you know why is Sant Jordi the saint patron of Catalunya? And what do we do in this special day? Read below for more info! 

InCAEM, In Situ Correlative Facility for Advanced Energy Materials, is a new facility, now in construction at the ALBA Synchrotron premises, open to all the scientific community for studying advanced materials.

On Friday, 14 April 2023, more than 70 members from different Catalan research institutions attended a workshop where the facility was presented, and explored collaboration opportunities.

On Friday, 14 April 2023, we received the visit of the "Sol i Lluna" school from Castellar del Vallès. The students aged 11-12 years old could experience some of the science at ICMAB and ICN2.

The students of the "Sol i Lluna" school in Castellar del Vallès participate in the project NanoInventum, in which they learn concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnology and have to create nanorobots with extraordinary properties to solve some of the problems of our live.

In last year's edition of the NanoInventum project, one of the prizes (the Technology Prize) was a visit to the ICMAB labs, to see how researchers work and to see some topics of nanoscience and nanotechnology. 

Sergi Riera-Galindo, ICMAB researcher, is the IP of this project awarded by the Barcelona City Council to young and emerging research projects. 

The ceremony was held on Monday, 20 March at the Barcelona City Council (at the Saló de Cent) and a diploma was given to each researcher of the eighteen winning projects.  

Sergi Riera's project is titled "Bus stop integrated organic photovoltaics (TERRA)" and is granted with 60,000 €. The project aims to integrate stable organic photovoltaics mini-modules on bus stops to power light devices for a future smart city.  

ICMAB played an essential role in the development of the high-temperature superconductors installed in this new NMR.

Take a look at the amazing scientific disseminators that spread knowledge through social media and to the books related to women in science that people recommended us!

This year, to commemorate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science from the Gender Equality Committee we asked people to recommend us:

• • scientific disseminators, communicators
  • influencers and
  • books related to women in science.

And we received more than 60 answers from different people, schools, universities, etc. 

Muhammad Ahsan Saeed will work on indoor organic photovoltaics, Silvia Damerio on spintronic devices and Daniel Martin on organic electronic devices. 

The Marie Sklodowska Curie (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) 2022 call results were announced by the European Commission in February 2023. The call will facilitate the incorporation of 1,235 experienced postdoctoral researchers to R+D institutions (research centers, universities, private and public organisation and small and medium-sized enterprises), 177of them in Spain, 31 of them at the CSIC, and 3 of them here at ICMAB.

More than one hundred CSIC scientists meet to promote the energy transition. ICMABers M. Rosa Palacín and Teresa Puig participate in the meeting. 

• This cutting-edge facility will house two high-end electron microscopes: one to determine the structure of large protein complexes and another to study materials at atomic level.
• Created thanks to the joint effort of several research institutes, the centre is located at the ALBA Synchrotron and will be open to the entire scientific community.
• Catalan Research and Universities Minister Joaquim Nadal inaugurates the centre, which has received funding from the Catalan Government’s ERDF programme, on 24 February.

In article published in Advanced Sensor Research, Anna Palau and co-workers study permalloy strips with substrate-induced uniaxial anisotropy, since they offer the possibility to produce fast in-plane magnetization reversals triggered by an out-of-plane magnetic field.

Transifere is a professional, multisector forum aimed at knowledge transfer, with a focus on business opportunities and networking. It is one of the biggest events in the south of Europe.

Themed panels and conferences afford attendees the chance to get information from relevant sources in science, technology and business. The topic of this year's Transfiere is "Boosting Innovation". 

PHOENIX-OITB’s mission is to offer a Single-Entry-Point for a consolidated network of facilities, technologies, services and expertise for all the technology transfer aspects:

In the next conference of the IEC "Dijous de ciència" the talk will be by M. Rosa Palacín on batteries.

The Science and Technology Section of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans invites you to the conference of the 2023 Science and Technology Thursday cycle—research at the service of society—, which will be given by M. Rosa Palacín, research professor at the 'Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) of the CSIC, and which will be entitled "Batteries and materials: where do we come from and where are we going".

2023 is the year of the 7^th edition of the Scientific Meeting of PhD candidates! The registration and abstract submission for the annual conference JPhD are now open!

Please register for the event designed and conceived from and for PhD candidates that will take place on the 7^th and 8^th of June 2023 at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Campus, at ICMAB.

The cover illustrates the article "Boron clusters (ferrabisdicarbollides) shaping the future as radiosensitizers for multimodal (chemo/radio/PBFR) therapy of glioblastoma". 

The Horizon Europe project NABIHEAL, coordinated by the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), was launched on 11-12 January 2023 in Barcelona with the first meeting of the international consortium, formed by 14 partners from 7 countries, including research centers, universities, and private companies.