• IMDEA Materials’ Dr. Monsur Islam and Visiting Researcher Dr. Guang-Zhong Yin are among those awarded prestigious Ramón y Cajal Fellowships by the Spanish government.
• The grants will enable the researchers to advance efforts in developing the next generation of living machines, and bio-based flame-retardant polymers.

Living machines for smart surgical devices, improved drug delivery systems, and fire-safe energy storage materials are among the potential scientific breakthroughs that could become reality in the not-so-distant future. That’s following the success of researchers Monsur Islam and Guang-Zhong Yin in this year’s Ramón y Cajal (RyC) fellowship call.

Dr. Islam and Dr. Yin were recently awarded the prestigious recognition by the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation, and Universities. This achievement highlights their exceptional research contributions and underscores IMDEA Materials’ commitment to advancing scientific knowledge and innovation.

Dr. Islam joins Dr. Federico Sket and Dr. Damien Tourret as one of three current RyC grant holders at the Institute.

Since joining IMDEA Materials on a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2023, Dr. Islam has been exploring groundbreaking advancements in the 3D printing of carbon materials, a line of research with promising applications in several fields including energy, electronics, transport, health, and space.

His RyC fellowship, however, will now allow him to expand this research by investigating the use of a wider range of materials in the 3D printing process. His goal is to understand how these materials interact with living cells, aiming to create multimaterial 3D-printed structures that evolve into living machines.

“So far, I have been focused on 3D carbon printing, but now I want to start exploring other materials,” explained Dr. Islam. “These could be alloys, metal carbides, metal oxides, etc. We need to study how these materials can be manufactured, and particularly, how they interact with living cells on the microscale”.

“These could have incredible applications, such as smart surgical devices with reduced risk of toxicity to patients, new methods of drug delivery, or smart tissue engineering scaffolds.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Yin, now at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), continues his research on phase change materials (PCMs) and biomass flame-retardant polymer nanocomposites, which he has developed since his time at IMDEA Materials.

His work aims to develop new sustainable flame-retardant phase change composite materials, aligning with the EU’s 2050 long-term strategy for a climate-neutral Europe.

“Sustainable biomass materials can substitute fossil-based materials, contributing to a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy,” he explained.

His research will enhance the sustainability, fire safety, and multifunctionality of energy storage materials, supporting the European Green Deal and contributing to global climate action under the Paris Agreement.