Outreach

On Wednesday, 30 May 2018, the ICMAB received the visit of the students belonging to the University Program FUB+GRAN, organized by the Fundació Universitària del Bages (UViC-UCC). The students of this program are all over 55 years old, and they all are curious minds and interested about all different kind of topics.

The ICMAB reserarchers Gil Gonçalves and Gerard Tobias are the editors of one of the most recent Springer books, Nanooncology: Engineering Nanomaterials for Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis. 

On 16-17 June the ICMAB participated at the Barcelona Maker Faire. Many members of the NANOMOL group presented their research on encapsulation and hydrogels for biomedical applications. They used the spherification concept as a metaphor for the nanoencapsulation, and the gelification of agar agar for the hydrogels. The stand, which was always full of families and kids, obtained the Maker of Merit award, given by the organization to the best Makers of this year's edition. 

On 9-10 June 2018, ICMAB participated at the 12th edition of the Barcelona Science Festival with lots of activities. The festival counted with more than 230 activities in 33 different spaces distributed along the Ciutadella Park. 160 institutions (research centers, entities, associations, universities, individuals) participated in the event, organized by BCNCiència (Institut de Culgura de l'Ajuntament de Barcelona), and more than 20,000 attendees joined the festival during the weekend. 

The Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera has developed the program "Bojos per la Ciència" to open the doors of the most relevant research institutes to the most excellent secondary school students. ICMAB joined in 2017 ICN2, IFAE and UAB for the second edition of "Bojos per la Física" and continued this year within this program, which has been a real success.

Are you ready for a weekend full of science in an amazing venue in Barcelona? On June 9-10, many ICMAB researchers participate at the Barcelona Science Festival at Parc de la Ciutadella (Barcelona). Come with us and participate with your friends and family to the many activities prepared.

From ICMAB, Jordi Rius and Ashley Black will give two microtalks on crystalline structure of minerals and lithium-ion batteries, Martí Gibert will participate on a debate on how nanotechnology affects our life, Javier Repetto will talk about nanomedicine and the film Fantastic Voyage, and Anna May will be challenging the participants with a photonic contest and coordinating some of the events. 

Pint of Science, the festival that gathers people together in bars to listen to scientific presentations instead of watching a football match, has been a great success, with more than 20,000 participants around Spain. In Barcelona, 10 bars were hosting scientific talks during the three days of the festival (14, 15 and 16 May 2018). ICMAB was also represented, as we explained in a previous post: Javier Repetto in Casa Orlandai on Tuesday 15 May, and Irene Antonin Alfa Bar on Wednesday 16 May. 

Our traditional photo contest, FOTICMAB, is already a consolidated activity and receives every year a high participation. This year, we had three categories: scientific, artistic and "ICMAB moments". The artistic category was the one with the highest participation (48 photos), followed by our most favourite scientific category (19 photos) and the recovered "ICMAB moments" with 10 photos.

The winner of the scientific category is the photo you can see above; "Photonic leaf" by Cristiano Matricardi. "Rainbow", by Laia Soler won the artistic category, and "¡Con una sonrisa se trabaja mejor!" by Adriana Kyvik won the "ICMAB moments" category. The three winners are all PhD researchers at the Institute. The winner of each cateogory received a smartbox to enjoy a dinner for two. 

Let's see the story behind each one of the winning and finalist photos:

On April 11, 2018, the ICMAB was present at the XIII "Fira d'Empreses" or Business Forum, at the Universitat the Barcelona (UB), after some years of absence. This forum is designed to showcase job opportunities and career paths and attract students in the final stages of their university degree, and is organized by the Science and Engineering Departments of the UB (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Computer Science, Earth Sciences and Biology). 105 industries, research centers and universities participated in the event, which counted with the visit of more than 600 unversity students from sixteen degrees and twenty-two masters in these scientific areas. 

From 11 May 2018, the book from Wiley Editors "Boron-Based Compounds: Potential and Emerging Applications in Medicine", which is focused on the medical applications of boron-based compounds, will be available. Prof. Clara Viñas is one of the co-editors of the book, together with Prof. Evamarie Hey-Hawkins (Leipzig University).

In additon, both Prof. Clara Viñas and Prof. Francesc Teixidor have contributed to the book with a chapter on "Cobaltabisdicarbollide‐based Synthetic Vesicles: From Biological Interaction to in vivo Imaging". 

The program "A researcher in your classroom" brought Prof. Anna Roig to Lliçà d'Amunt, at Institut Lliçà (Tuesday, 3 February), and Dr. Agustín Mihi to Institut Dr. Puigvert de Sant Andreu in Barcelona (Wednesday, 4 February). Both audiences were secondary school students of 4t ESO.

 The XIX Edition of ExpoRecerca Jove 2018 took place between 22 and 24 March in La Salle, Barcelona. Anna May, from ICMAB, participated as member of the jury of the presented projects by the talented groups of students from all over the world. 

Is is a great event in which the students present their pioneer and innovative projects, in many different fields: health, technology, biology, chemisty, arts & literature, robotics, etc. The students explain their projects to the jury members, and to all the visitors who wish to learn more about the future challenges of our world. 

Prof. Elies Molins, researcher at ICMAB and member of GISME (Interdisciplinary Reflection Group and Math Solutions for Entities), has collaborated in the creation of the exhibition 'Numbers and humanity' (Los números y la humanidad), which was exposed in the begining of 2018 at the UB, and on March this year at the "Saló de l'Ensenyament", next to the "Espai Ciència". Prof. Elies Molins is Scientific Director of the exhibition, together with Prof. Javier Tejada (GISME-UB), who is also the main organizer and curatior of the exhibition.

This year 2018 the ICMAB will be present like last year at "Expominer: Saló de minerals fòssils i joieria". The ICMAB will participate with a stand for some workshops for kids and families on minerals, materials and energy. In addition, some ICMAB researchers will give some science talks on different topics: magnetism, characterization of minerals using synchrotron light, optical properties of crystals, the history of borax (sodium borate), and quars. Don't miss the opportunity to visit one of the events with more minerals, fossils and jewelry of the world! A perfect place for school visits and families! 

After the success of the first edition in 2017 with more than 300 attendees, the second edition of BCNspiracy will taka place in CosmoCaixa Barcelona on 26-27 October 2018. This year, apart from the traditional talks BCNspiracy on science outreach, there will be a session on INspriacy (26 October), where secondary school students will have the opportunity to get inspired by young students who are studying their degree or are doing their PhD. On 27 October there will also be workshops and shows (PLAYspiracy) to show the interactive side of science, and a final networking event between speakers and audience, BEERspiracy. 

Two of our researchers, Dr. Esther Barrena, from the Physical Chemistry of Surfaces and Interfaces group, and Dr. Stefania Sandoval, from the Solid State Chemistry Group, went to two secondary school in the framework of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11F) and within the program "A researcher in your classroom" (Un investigador a la teva aula), to give two seminars on new materials for the future. 

On Friday, March 9 2018, one day after the International Women's Day, the students from 2n BTX of the high school Infanta Isabel in Barcelona visited our Institute.

A surprise awaited them: instead of having the usual seminar from one of our researchers, they had 12 researchers from the Institute waiting from them. But this 12 women did not give them a talk. Instead, they represented the play "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers".

On 27 and 28 February, the ICMAB was present at YoMo 2018, The Youth Mobile Festival, with an interactive stand open to all the primary and secondary school students who visited the Festival, and to all of their teachers. On Tuesday 27 February, the stand was devoted to the 3D printed structures with the 3D printing 3Doodler pens, by Andrés Gómez, from the Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) lab. Both boys and girls gathered around the tables willing to build their bridge or the structure of a carbon nanotube with the 3D pens.

On Friday, 16 February, we received the visit of a class of 1st BTX students from Institut Joaquima Pla i Farreras (Sant Cugat) who came to learn about "The nanomaterials of the future for energy" and, particularly, those for batteries. Dr. Dino Tonti, from the Solid State Chemistry Group, gave a talk on nanotechnology, materials for energy and focused on batteries, and on his research on lithium and sodium batteries. 

On 27 and 28 February from 9 am to 4 pm, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) will be at YoMo with an interactive stand to enhance the creativity of the students that will attend this festival, and introduce them to the materials science and nanotechnology world. 

On 19 January 2018 we received the visit of a group of highschool students from Institut Castellbisbal. The students listened first to our Communication and Outreach Officer, who welcomed them and explained them where they were and the work we do at ICMAB, and then to a seminar on "The materials of the future for nanomedicine" given by Dr. Judith Guasch, from the NANOMOL group. The seminar was followed by a visit to four of our laboratories: X-ray diffraction, AFM, SoftLab and the lab of Dr. Judith Guasch. 

Between 14 and 16 May 2018, the bars of Barcelona will be full of science. Pint of Science is back in town!

Irene Anton, PhD researcher at the NN group will give a talk on "Medicina regenerativa: cas concret dels implants de pell" on Wednesday, 16 May in Alfa Bar (Gràcia); and the Master student at NANOMOL group, Javier Repetto, will show the audience how to extract DNA on Tuesday 15 May in Casa Orlandai (Sarrià), during the session of "Nanoviaje por el cuerpo humano". 

The 10alamenos9 Festival of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology arrives to its 3rd edition! On April 2018, more than 1,000 participants (around 700 secondary school students, 150 primary school students), will participate in the more than 70 activities prepared by all the entities collaborating in this macro-event, that takes place in Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia, Bilbao and Madrid. 

On December 15 the Institut Bisbe Sevilla, from Calella, visited ICMAB and spent the morning with us. Marta Mas-Torrent, researcher at the NANOMOL group gave the seminar on "Nanomaterials of the future for electronics", in which she first introduced the scientific career and the concepts of nanoscience and nanotechnology, and then showed the students her research in this field. 

Andrés Gómez has spent one hour and a half with students aged 10-11 years old (5è de Primària) at the Sant Joan Baptista school, in La Barceloneta (Barcelona) on 29 November 2017. Andrés Gómez, specialist and responsible for the Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) laboratory at ICMAB, explained the kids the mysteries of science, nanotechnology, and even made some lab experiments. 

The IES Pere Calders, at the Campus UAB, visited our Institute on November 17, during the Setmana de la Ciència (Science Week). More than 30 students between 16-18 years could visit some of our scientific services, laboratories, and listen to the lecture given by Dr. Anna Laromaine, from the Nanoparticles and Nanocomposites Group (NN) on "Cellulose: a versatile material". 

ICMAB participates in the initiative "Yo ilustro la ciencia 3" within Illustraciencia, an international cycle of activities between October and December 2017. We are hosting a Science Illustration exhibition by Roc Olivé Pous, specialized in paleoart, dinosaurs, biology and medicine, in the framework of the "Setmana de la Ciència 2017" activities organized by the CSIC in Catalunya. 

The science outreach initiative "Un investigador a la teva aula" (A researcher in your classroom) brought Dr. Miquel Royo, from the Materials Simulation and Theory Group, to La Salle Bonanova highshool, in Barcelona, on the morning on November 13.; and Dr. Juan Luís García Pomar, Pau Molet and Cristiano Matricardi, from the NANOPTO group at Institut Gorgs, in Cerdanyola, on Friday 17 November....

ICMAB participated on 10,11,12 November 2017 at ExpoMiner, the exhibition of minerals, fossils and jewelry, with some outreach talks given by four of our researchers, and science demos in our stand about superconducting materials, photovoltaic energy, batteries and graphene. According to ExpoMiner, which highlighted that the science talks and demos had been very popular among the visitors, all the talks and workshops of the exhibition attracted more than 450 visitors, which represented a 12.5 % increase respect to last year. 

On 13-14 November, the members of the ICMAB Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) visited our Institute to scientifically evaluate the research lines and the overall performance of the Institute. In this year's visit, the research lines evaluated were RL1: Sustainable energy conversion and storage systems, and RL3: Oxide electronics. 

2017 is the year of minerals as an energy resource. EXPOMINER (10-12 November) has chosen as its theme the relationship between minerals, energy and sustainable development. ICMAB, a research center of materials science, will participate in the event with some amazing talks from our researchers and interactive workshops. Join us in this event! 

This Friday we had the visit of more than 25 students from IES Consell de Cent (Barcelona), who joined the ESCOLAB programme to visit universities and research centers in Catalonia.

As we already announced,  Andrés Gómez and Guillermo de Andrés Iglesias, from ICMAB, have been selected as finalists with their project “BRIDG3D: Imprimiendo puentes en 3D” in the XVIII Edition of "CiencIa en Acción" in the category "Science and Technology". Well, the FINAL day has arrived: tomorrow, Andrés and Guillermo will head to Izarra Centre in Ermua (Vizcaya, Basque Country) to defend their project in front of many others, from 6 to 8 October 2017. 

The 18th Edition of EXPOQUIMIA, the International Chemistry Event from Fira de Barcelona, will take place on October 2-6, 2017, and will be the venue for the 10th World Congress on Chemical Engineering, the World Chemical Summit, and the PHARMAprocess forum. It will also host the exhibition Smart Chemistry, Smart Future, and the Industrial Biotech forum, and the IN(3D)USTRY, EQUIPLAST and EURSURFAS events.

On September 8, 2017, ICMAB and its employees will participate in the "Kids' Day at ICMAB".

PhD students, post-doctoral and young researchers, as well as engineers and technicians, from both academia and industry will be allowed to spend a week on a laboratory of the NFFA-Europe Consortium to gain hands-on experience of advanced services for nanoscience and nanotechnology.

El passat 17 de juliol vam tenir l'agradable visita de la Maria Torras, la noia de Manresa que va obtenir la millor nota de la Selectivitat a Catalunya, juntament amb tres altres noies: un 9,8!