Newspapers

The Societat Catalana de Química (SCQ) has been publishing the highlights in Chemical Research in Catalunya for the last two decades. Between the pages of the latest Edition we can find two publications by ICMAB Researchers who have made significant contributions to the field this year.

On 9 November 2020, Judith Guasch appered in the cover of the Agencia SINC in an interview to talk about her research on 3D hydrogels that mimic lymph nodes and that will be used as scaffolds for T cell culture in cancer immunotherapy.

The magazine edited by Ecoembes, Circle, which has sustainable innovation as its central theme, includes in its last issue a report about the future of Li-ion batteries waste generation entitled "Rumbo al mañana (eléctrico y sostenible) de los residuos" and includes some thoughts about Li-ion batteries by ICMAB researcher M. Rosa Palacín.

New technologies are frequently supported on innovative functional materials that allow for improvements in performance in order to leave behind the physical limitations of current materials. The economic supplement of La Razón Innovadores talked with 6 expert researchers on the field of materials, amongst which was ICMAB's Director Xavier Obradors, to find more about the future of hardware in advanced technologies. 

One of the seven awarded photos in this year's edition of FOTCIENCIA, the photo from our PhD fellow, Cristiano Matricardi, "Trampa de luz" is the star of the HERALDO newspaper article "Juegos de luces entre la naturaleza y el laboratorio" by María Pilar Perla Mateo. You can read here the article. 

On 29 December 2018 the article "Martí Gich rep dos milions d'euros per investigar el 5G", written by the journalist Núria Jar, was published in the printed version of the "Diari de Sabadell", a local newspaper from the near city of Sabadell.

• Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility have characterized the structural, electronic and magnetic behavior of nanoparticles of a rare phase of iron oxide, the epsilon phase, under extreme pressure conditions, emulating the conditions of the interior of the Earth.
• The study, published in Nature Communications, concludes that the presence of this rare phase of iron oxide in the inner Earth is possible, and that under these conditions there is a new iron oxide phase, epsilon prime, with magnetic properties radically different from those known so far.

On Saturday, 17 November 2018, we participated in the "Science Tech Girls Vallès" event, in the Library Vapor Badia in Sabadell. The event was planned as a morning full of science and technology for girls between 8 and 18 years old. Boys could also participate, but it was an action to encourage the participation of girls in science. The morning started at 10 am with the dramatised reading, created and performed by ICMAB women, "Madame du Châtelet and her Instagram followers", which wants to visibilize the women scientists throughout history. 

The last issue of the Revista Española de Física (RdF) of the RSEF contains five articles written by the winners of the XII edition of the Research Awards "For Women in Science" from L'Oréal-UNESCO. The Editorial Committee decided to invite them to write an article about their research for the section "Temas de Física". Mariona Coll, from the ICMAB, has written the article "Oxides and low-cost chemical methods: New perspectives for photovoltaics".

On Monday, 24 September, this article appeared in the printed version in the newspaper "El Periódico", both in the Spanish and Catalan version. The article is written by the journalist Valentina Raffio, and features two ICMAB researchers, Teresa Puig and Marta Mas-Torrent, in the framework of the project #LasCientíficasCuentan, an initiative by CSIC-Brussels and funded by the FECYT. We transcribe here the text. 

We transcribe here the article appeared in El País (7 Sept 2018) about the future of batteries for electric vehicles, written by Francesco Rodella, who interviewed Prof. Rosa Palacín, from the ICMAB, and other experts in the field:

• A recent study demonstrates the feasibility of the electrochemical extraction of calcium from a metal oxide, which could be used as a cathode (positive electrode) for calcium batteries
• The study, published in Dalton Transactions, was carried out in collaboration with Toyota Motor Europe, which shares the patent

This article was published on May 28, 2018, in La Vanguardia, and is signed by Carina Farreras, Barcelona. We transcribe it here as it is. You can download here the paper version. SOMMa is the alliance of the Severo Ochoa and Maria de Maeztu research centers and units, formed by 41 research centers and units, and by more than 5,000 researchers. SOMMa wants to promote Spanish Excellence in research and enhance its social impact at national and international levels.

Respiro para la ciencia. Una enmienda a ley de Presupuestos desencalla la paralización de los centros.

ICMAB is the recipient of one of twelve MIT-Spain ”la Caixa” Foundation Seed Fund grants under a brand new funding programme in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The presentation of the grants took place on 18 April 2018 at Palau Macaya (Barcelona). A common objective of all the awarded projects is to face some of the challenges of the XXI century: organs on a chip to fight cancer, polymers against antibiotic resistance, in vitro biologic 3D ears, quantic computers for data processing, or new materials to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells, to name a few. This latter is the project from Dr. Ignasi Fina, from the MULFOX group at ICMAB, who will work together with Dr. Rafael Jaramillo, at MIT. 

The creation of SOMMa will allow research centres and units to increase their impact, foster their cooperation, work as a network, and enrich the R+D system as a whole. SOMMa has presented the document “SOMMa Position Paper: Actions required to safeguard science competitiveness”, which aims at drawing the attention of politicians to tackle some of the current administrative issues urgently and in a long-lasting manner.

The last post of this series about the most cited articles month per month of year 2017. Herein, the most cited ones from November and December 2017.

A year in review: this post continues with the series of the most cited articles in every month of 2017. Here we feature the most cited articles of September and October 2017. 

A year in review: we continue in this post with the series of the most cited articles of every month of the year 2017. In this post we will see the most cited articles corresponding to the months of June, July and August 2017.

A year in review: we start here a series of the most cited article written by ICMAB researchers during 2017, month by month. In this post, you will find the most cited article of January, February and March 2017. 

The July-September issue of the Revista Española de Física (Vol 31, No 3) includes a monogaph of 41 pages on Condensed Matter. Some ICMAB researchers have contributed in some of the articles.

You can download in this post the articles of the monograph, with the permission of the journal. If you become a member of the RSEF you'll be able to read all the journal!

According to EcoDiario.es, the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB) increased from 170 to 202 employees from 30 November 2011 to 31 July 2017, which represents an increase of nearly 19 %. 

One of the projects of Dr. Anna Laromaine, ICMAB researcher in the Nanoparticles and Nanocomosites Group (NN), is featured on EU Research Digital Magazine. The article focuses on one of her projects involving the synthesis and evaluation of nanoparticles in 3D environments: 3DinvitroNPC. 

The Revista de Física, from the Real Sociedad Española de Física - RSEF, includes in its second number of 2017 an article about the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB), within the section "Nodos de la Física".

REGIO7 | 15/03/2017

El coordinador del projecte, Xavier Obradors, ha explicat que Eurotapes és un "projecte europeu de referència de superconductors", resultat de la col·laboració entre el món acadèmic i la indústria. "Les cintes superconductores poden fer passar 100 vegades més corrent que la fibra de coure", ha informat Obradors, i això permetrà "transportar molta energia i disminuir el cost de producció d'aquesta cinta". 

LA RAZÓN | 13/03/2017 | Eva Martínez Rull

Convertir un aerogenerador de 2MW de potencia en un «molino» superconductor dos veces más ligero y que, sobre todo, no pierda ni un vatio de energía por la disipación de calor. Es lo que ha conseguido un grupo de investigadores del Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Barcelona (ICMAB); el Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC); el Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón (ICMA); el Instituto mixto del CSIC y de la Universidad de Zaragoza (Unizar), y Gamesa Innovation and Technology.

EL PERIÓDICO, DOMINGO, 12 DE FEBRERO DEL 2017 MICHELE CATANZARO
El cambio primordial en un molino superconductor está en el generador. “En lugar de cobre y hierro en su interior hay cintas de segunda generación, unos filamentos superconductores”, explica Xavier Obradors, director del Icmab. No solo los filamentos no pierden energía, sino que tampoco se calientan, por lo que no se necesita la maquinaria de enfriamiento que precisan los metales tradicionales.

El proyecto innovador, presentado por el Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, se basa en el diseño de un generador, sobre la base física de un generador de DFIG de 2MW de uso habitual en aerogeneradores comerciales, convirtiéndolo en un prototipo de generador síncrono de potencia equivalente con devanado de campo superconductor.

The European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Spring Meeting 2016 was held on 2–6 May in the Congress Center in Lille, France.

LA VANGUARDIA, 19 DIC 2016

El centre de biotecnologia cubà BioCubaFarma i el centre català TECNIO Nanomol acaben d'iniciar el procés per validar clínicament un nou medicament que té per objectiu millorar la cicatrització de l'úlcera del peu diabètic i evitar així la seva amputació.

"Esta joven científica española acaba de recibir una beca de investigación L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science por su ya larga y prolífica carrera dedicada al estudio de las nanopartículas y su increíble potencial en medicina.

REGIÓ7, Francesc Galindo 08.12.2016

LA VANGUARDIA, 25, SEPT 2016

Trabajar en la investigación, desarrollo y comercialización de productos innovadores, en campos con tantas expectativas de futuro como la energía, puede ser la clave del éxito para una nueva empresa.

News on Organic Photovoltaics: The scientific paper "Exploring the origin of High Optical Absorption in Conjugated Polymers" by

ICMAB-CSIC researchers M. Campoy and A.Goñi, among others, has been commented in Nature Materials, Vol 15, July 2016, page 705 "News and Views".