IMDEA Materials researchers came together on Tuesday for the first edition of the IMDEA Materials Soft Matter Summer Meeting, an internal initiative designed to encourage scientific exchange.

Held as a half-day event, the programme brought together presentations spanning a broad range of topics, reflecting the diversity and interdisciplinary nature of research carried out at IMDEA Materials.

You can see photos from the event on our Flickr account, here.

The event opened with welcoming remarks by the institute’s Director, Prof. Jon Molina, who highlighted the importance of creating opportunities for researchers to step outside the boundaries of their immediate projects to discover new perspectives and opportunities for collaboration.

The scientific programme was structured around three thematic sessions. The first, “Waves of Life: Biomaterials, Hydrogels and Scaffolds“, explored advances in biomaterial discovery and tissue engineering.

The session got underway with Dr. Mónica Echeverry Rendón, leader of IMDEA Materials’ Biometals, Coatings and Devices research group, who introduced The Biomaterial Discovery Toolbox.

This was followed by presentations on cell encapsulation in bis-urea hydrogels from Blanca Limones, scaffolds for articular cartilage regeneration from Jinyi Huang, and the design of multifunctional hydrogel systems responsive to external stimuli from Dr. Francesca Sepúlveda.

The second session, “The Science Scoop: AI, Automation and Materials Discovery“, focused on emerging approaches that combine artificial intelligence, automation and advanced experimentation to accelerate materials research.

Presentations from Dr. Davide Mocerino, Miguel Hernández and Burcu Ozdemir, covered predictive modelling in composite materials engineering, the development of autonomous laboratories for polymer nanocomposites, and AI-driven strategies for discovering printable hydrogel formulations.

In the final session, “Shades of Matter: Nanostructures, Composites and Functional Materials“, invited speaker, Dr. Cristina Pascual González from the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (ICMM-CSIC), introduced a multi-technique approach (DSC, rheology, SAXS/WAXS) to unravel the piezoelectric morphology in 3D-printed PLLA.

Discussions also ranged from nanowire behaviour and recycling strategies for carbon nanotube-based composites (Dr. David Tilve and Dr. Anastasiia Mikhalchan), physical vapour deposition coating design (Arley García), PVA hydrogel networks (Juan León Ramos), and the development of laser-induced graphene reinforcements for smart composites (Dr. Xiang Ao).

The first edition of the Soft Matter Summer Meeting was organised by postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Sepúldeva, predoctoral researcher Luis Calero and Staff Scientist, Dr. Juan Pedro Fernández.

It marks the beginning of a new opportunity to not only learn more about the projects, laboratories and research being carried out at the institute, but also to exchange perspectives, and start new scientific conversations across research groups.

IMDEA Materials would like to thank all speakers, session chairs and attendees for contributing to the success of this inaugural meeting.