Micromechanics and Nanomechanics
Dr Molina is a renowned expert worldwide in Micro- and Nanomechanical testing, having pioneered the implementation of these tests in extreme conditions (high temperature) and/or in situ inside electron microscopes. He has applied these techniques for the understanding of the processing-microstructure-property relationships in a wide range of structural materials, including composite materials, light metallic alloys, high temperature metallic alloys, intermetallics, nanomaterials, hard coatings and more recently, metallic alloys produced by additive manufacturing for energy, transport and biomedical applications. Some of his main contributions in this field have been the understanding of deformation mechanisms, the implementation of high-throughput characterisation techniques and the development of experimental strategies that allow feeding microstructure based multi- scale models of material behaviour, in order to facilitate virtual testing strategies in the field of Computational Materials Engineering. In 2020, he shifted part of his research activities towards the development of metamaterials and smart materials by additive manufacturing for biomedical applications, including Ti, Mg, Zn and TiNi-based devices. Some examples include the additive manufacturing of shape-morphing biodegradable metallic scaffolds for tissue engineering and the development of a new generation of smart and personalised stents for cardiovascular applications.
- 2021 – ongoing: Deputy Director of IMDEA Materials Institute
- 2021 – ongoing: Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Madrid
- 2015 – Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Arizona State University, USA
- 2008 – ongoing: Senior Researcher and Head of the group of Nanomechanics and Micromechanics of Advanced Materials at IMDEA Materials Institute, Spain.
- 2002 – 2008 Tenured researcher at CEIT and Associated Professor of Materials Science at the University of Navarra, Spain.
- 2002 – Ph.D. at Cambridge University, UK.
- 1998 – MSc Materials Engineering, University of Navarra, Spain.
- 2022 – Stanford List of Top 2% of Scientists.
- 2019 – Visiting Professor at University of Texas in Arlington
- 2018 – Best JOM Paper Award, TMS Structural Materials Division
- 2018 – Excellence in Research Award, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- 2015 – Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Arizona State University, USA
- 2009 – PI3 Fellowship, Spanish Ministry of Science
- 2003 – Torres Quevedo Grant, Spanish Ministry of Science
- 1998-2022 – Predoctoral fellowship, Basque Government
- 1998 – Award of academic excellence, Spanish Ministry of Education
- 2021 – Board member of SOCIEMAT (Spanish Society for Materials)
- 2019 – Chair, Nanomechanical testing in Materials Research and Development Conference
- 2013 – Chair, Nanoscale Multilayers Conference
