Outreach

The CSIC Annual Report 2018 is now online. You can find information about the 120 research centers and units, 1,597 research groups, and 10,642 total staff. The ICMAB article "Hydroxypropyl cellulose photonic architectures by soft nanoimprinting lithography" (Nature Photonics 12, 343 (2018)) appears as one of the highlights in the Materials Science and Technology area. 

The studies "Synchrotron tts-µXRD identification of secondary phases in ancient ceramics" published in Heritage Science, and "Breaking Preconceptions: Thin Section Petrography For Ceramic Glaze Microstructures" published in Minerals are now featured in UABDivulga. These two articles, in which researchers from the UAB and the ICMAB have collaborated, refute the common perception of thin-sections as an old-fashioned laboratory preparation and show how this sample format conceived in the 19th century is still in force and can be adapted to the research and the new tools of the 21st century, such as the synchrotron facilities.

Mariano Campoy-Quiles is an invited speaker at this ICN2 Severo Ochoa Workshop on energy storage and harvesting entitled "Energy Mining in the 21st century". The event will take place at the CCCB-Mirador on Friday, 12 July 2019. To attend the event, please contact the organizers.

M. Rosa Palacín was on Thursday, 11 July 2019, in Madrid at the conference organized by EL PAÍS, CincoDías and Cadena SER about the future of electric cars "Los retos del coche eléctrico". The event counted with the presence of Teresa Ribera (Ecologic Transition Minister), Reyes Maroto (Industry, Commerce and Turism Minister), José Bogas (Endesa) and Luis Antonio Ruiz (Jaguar Land Rover), and other experts in engineering and materials science. 

Clara Viñas and Francesc Teixidor, from the Inorganic Materials and Catalysis Book, have written Chapter 5 of Volume 1 of the "Handbook of Boron Science". The chapter is entitled: "Halogenated Icosahedral Carboranes: A Platform for Remarkable Applications". The handbook counts with 4 volumes, the first one being "Boron in Organometallic Chemistry". The handbook is edited by Narayan S Hosmane (Northern Illinois University, USA) andRobert Eagling.

Iif you are in the science field, you probably receive every week plenty of spam emails asking you to write an article for this or that journal, or to go to this or that conference. Usually, these emails are easy to spot, and they are quickly thrown on the trash folder. However, is there a way to properly detect them? And to fight them? Read this article by Mariano Campoy-Quiles (and with an original illustration by Alejandro Santos) to know how.

Xavier Obradors participated on June 19, 2019, on a roundtable about the "Energy of the future" in the framework of the European Week of Sustainable Energy in Vil·la Urània (Barcelona). Obradors gave an introductory talk on "Nanotechnology and Energy Transition" and then participated in the discussion with the other experts in the field from different research centers and organisations. 

On June 18, 2019, the winners of the ESCOLAB contest "Tenim una idea" were revealed. In the category "Idees to improve the health and nurition of the citizens" an idea to "develop an injectable chemical substance based on nanoparticles to regenerate bones in a quick and efficient way" was the winner. The idea came from Aina Vilar and Carlota Garcia, from the "Escola Pia de Granollers" who visited us last 10 May 2019, to learn about "The materials of the future for nanomedicine" with researcher Nora Ventosa. Congrats!

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 humoristic. The artistic category was the one with the highest participation (27 photos), followed by our most favourite scientific category (12 photos) and a humoristic category, with (only) 5 photos. We also received one video in the ClowntICMAB video category! 

Anna Morales, alias SizeMatters in YouTube, is a Researcher in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and a YouTuber. She owns the channel "SizeMatters", which is a nanoscience and nanotechnology channel in Spanish. In her last video, she explains the concepts of nanotechnology in some Marvel superheroes, and also in our Matheroes: ElectroWoman, Magnon, Bionanocapsule and Fotoenergy! 

Energy Days are organised by local public and private organisations to celebrate the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) 2019, organised by the European Commission, between 17-21 June 2019. Energy Days are activities and events that promote clean energy transition. Any activity can be an Energy Day – from a workshop, to a competition, to a tour of a power station – provided it engages citizens and energy stakeholders in building the Energy Union. At the ICMAB, our Energy Day will be on June 17, 2019, with the ICMAB Periodical Lecture given by Jordi Llorca, on Hydrogen!

On Wednesday, 12 June 2019, the Quantum exhibition at CCCB received the visit of three scientists working in Quantum research at the ALBA Synchrotron: Gervasi Herranz, from the ICMAB, Salvador Ferrer, from ALBA, and Jordi Fraxedas, from the ICN2. The three researchers talked to an audience of about 40 people about their quantum experiments at the ALBA synchrotron. 

The Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera develops the program "Bojos per la Ciència" to open the doors of the most relevant research institutes to the most excellent secondary school students. The ICMAB joined in 2017 the initiative "Bojos per la Física" coordinated by the ICN2, and the IFAE. This year, Ignasi Fina and Jordi Faraudo were in charge of showing piezoelectricity and molecular simulation to the students. 

The Material-ES scientific magazine is published every three months by the Spanish Materials Society (SOCIEMAT). They are always looking for authors that would like to publish an article with them. Written works in Spanish and English will be accepted. Once received, they will be scheduled for publication in the next issues.

On 5 June 2019 we celebrate the World Environment Day to encourage worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. Since it began in 1974, the event has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. The event called "Environment and Society" is organized at IDAEA-CSIC. Nora Ventosa, researcher at the ICMAB and vice-president of the SCQ, will open the event, which has the Periodic Table as main theme, and in which all the speakers are women scientists!

On June 4 the final event of Nanoinventum will take place at the Faculties of Chemistry and Biology of the University of Barcelona. Primary school students and their teachers from 5 different schools, involving more than 200 students, will present the work in nanorobots that they have carried out this year. They will also interview Anna Roig (ICMAB) and Mercè Segarra (UB) to know more about the life of a scientist. 

This year the ICMAB has participated for the third time in the seventh edition of the University Programme FUB+GRAN "Saber per descobrir", organized by the Fundació Universitària del Bages (UVIC-UCC), and addressed to people of more than 55 years old, who have interest in learning more. On Wednesday, 29 May 2019, the students came to visit the ICMAB to see some of our scientific and technical services. 

We received a call from one of the students of 1st BTX of the Institut Marina, from La Llagosta. They wanted to visit us, since they had seen us at the "Fira de la Recerca en Directe" at CosmoCaixa Barcelona. So we agreed they would come and visit us. On Friday 24 May 2019 they came to the ICMAB to discover the "Materials of the future for energy" and to celebrate a EU Energy Day with us. 

During three days, between 20-22 May, the Pint of Science Festival, which brings science to bars and pubs, will take place in many cities of Spain. Vic will host this festival in La Jazz Cava, and Mariona Coll will be there the night of Wednesday, 22 May 2019. 

During three days, between 20-22 May, the Pint of Science Festival, which brings science to bars and pubs, will take place in many cities of Spain. Sant Cugat del Vallès will, for the first time, host this festival! The "Cal Temerari" bar will be full of science for three days!

Clara Viñas, Rosario Núñez and Francesc Teixidor, from the Inorganic Materials and Catalysis Laboratory at ICMAB, and Isabel Romero, from the Universitat de Girona, co-authored the Wiley-VCH book "Smart Inorganic Polymers: Synthesis, Properties, and Emerging Applications in Materials and Life Sciences", in particular, the chapter "Highlighting the Binding Behavior of Icosahedral Boron Clusters Incorporated into Polymers: Synthons, Polymers Preparation, and Relevant Properties".

On 14 May 2019 we received the visit of Klaus Attenkofer, new Scientific Director of ALBA Synchrotron at the Experiments Division since 4 March 2019. Klaus Attenkofer was received by our Director, Xavier Obradors, by our Vicedirector, M. Rosa Palacín, and by the Head of the Scientific Equipment Platforms, Carlos Frontera.

To celebrate this year's Europe Day, we wanted to give visibility to the European projects in which we work here at ICMAB, which represent some of the work performed at the Institute on advanced functional materials for energy, electronics and nanomedicine. Do you want to know more about them?

Register before it's too late! The dramatised reading "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers", which recently received a Grant from FGCSIC, will open the Conference Cycle organized by Alumni UB "Dones de ciència retrobades en la història". The dramatised reading will take place on Monday, 29 April at 6 pm at the "Sala Gabriel Oliver" (Facultat de Filologia, Edifici Històric UB). Entrace is free but registration is needed. 

At the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) we celebrate Sant Jordi 2019 with the second edition of the Book Exchange. This year, we also included two bookmarks to give as a souvenir to all our staff.

A new edition of the photo and video contest of the ICMAB, FOTICMAB 2019, is now open, until 26 May 2019 (included). All the ICMAB staff can participate in this contest, which is already a tradition of our Institute!

On Wednesday 10 April 2019, the ICMAB will be at the XIV Business Forum "Fira d'Empreses" organized by the Faculty of Physics and the Faculty of Chemistry, with the participation of three more faculties, Mathematics and Computer Science, Earth Sciences and Biology. If you are a student or a researcher and would like to do an internship with us or work with us, come and visit us and we will inform you, from 10 am from 5 pm. 

Ferran Macià, researcher at ICMAB in the MULFOX group has been selected to participate in the Spanish edition of the international science outreach programme “I’m a scientist, get me out of here!”. The 2019 edition of “Somos científicos, ¡Sácanos de aquí!” takes place from 1-12 April 2019. During this time, Ferran will chat in a multidisciplinary group of scientists – the CSIC zone – that includes researchers from other CSIC centres.

On Friday, 29 March 2019, the "Matheroes: Supermaterials, the materials of the future" were presented for a school class of students aged 11-12 (6è Primària) from Sabadell in the Ponent Library in Sabadell (Biblioteca de Ponent). Núria Crivillers, Juan-Luís García-Pomar and Anna May Masnou, presented some of the supermaterials and their properties and applications.

The ICMAB research is present at the 10th International Postgraduate and Continuous Training Forum in Madrid in the CSIC stand (5E01). The forum opens its doors on 28-30 March from 10 am to 8 pm. If you are a student and/or a professional in the education field, here you will find endless options to expand your academic education: masters, doctorates, postgraduate studies, or language schools, in business schools, educational centers, universities, or research centers.

On Wednesday, 27 March 2019, we received the visit of Engineering Undergraduate students from the Escola Universitària Salesiana de Sarrià (EUSS) (Salesian University School of Sarrià). The EUSS is a center afiliated to the UAB created in 1994 and located in Barcelona. Xavier Obradors gave a first overview to the ICMAB research and then the students could visit some of our labs.