IMDEA Materials work in the SORCERER project, funded by Clean Sky 2, has been highlighted in the CompositesWorld magazine. Click here to check the whole article.
Our colleague Andrea Fernández Gorgojo, has been awarded one of the Young Talent Awards (premio Talento Joven-Carné Joven ) from the regional government of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid) in the environmental category due to her innovative project focused in the application of new materials to obtain efficient, economic and sustainable batteries. Congratulations!
In this opinion article in “El País” journal, our researcher Andrea García-Junceda claims the role of women in research centers, Universities and laboratories around the world. In order to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/70/212 declaring 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science
Juan José Vilatela, head of the Multifunctional Nanocomposites group at IMDEA Materials, has been awarded best researcher under 40 by the Madrid regional government. The award giving ceremony will take place next november 14th in Madrid (Spain).
Rubén Costa is working in a paradigm swift related to lightning technologies, based in biological LEDs. Read more about his research line on solar windows in this article published by “El Mundo” journal (in Spanish only).
The high content of blue light presented by current LEDs can be harmful to the human retina, especially for children, and has a negative impact on our brain´s chemistry. Rubén Costa, researcher at the IMDEA Materials Institute of Madrid; Elena Lalinde and Jesús Berenguer, from the University of La Rioja, and Javier García, from the University of Alicante, have succeeded at producing a material similar to sand (silica nanoparticles) that emits high quality white light for a new generation of LEDs hybrids. Read more at LED professional.
Rubén Costa, senior researcher at IMDEA Materials, has been recognized as one of the best scientists in the world under the age of 40 by the Word Economic Forum. He will play an important role at the Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, which is taking place in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, on 18-20 September. Together with other Thirty-five brilliant researchers, he will participate in sessions and workshops alongside leaders from government, business, civil society and other stakeholder groups and contribute ideas for solving complex challenges within and outside their core areas of interest. Rubén Costa is developing the next-generation of bio-LEDs, aiming to eliminate the need for toxic, polluting and finite rare-earth metals in the world’s artificial lighting.
Our Scientific Director and head of the Mechanics of Materials research group, Prof Javier Llorca, explains his vision of the researcher’s career in this interview (in Spanish only)
Rubén Costa and his team (below) will develop the first solar window made of organic materials thanks to a grant awarded by the BBVA Foundation. You can read here a related article published by “El Confidencial” journal (Spanish)
Some materials are special not for what they contain, but for what they don’t contain. Such is the case with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – ultra-porous structures that are being developed for a variety of future applications from fire-proofing to drug-delivery. Read the whole article in HORIZON magazine
Rubén Costa, head of the research group on hybrid optoelectronic materials and devices at IMDEA Materials, has been awarded with a special mention by Gas Natural Fenosa. This Spanish company is one of the biggest promotors of innovation, research, and development of technologies devoted to the energy sector. They recognize Rubén Costa as one of the pioneers working on the forefront of hybrid solar cells and light-emitting diodes. The mention was delivered during the Innovators Under 35 Europe: Spain Gathering event of MIT Technology Review in Barcelona.
The MICROMECH project, part of the Sustainable and Green Engines (SAGE) Integrated Technology Demonstrators (ITD) of Clean Sky, has successfully developed a multi-scale computational tool to predict the mechanical behaviour of the Ni-based superalloys used in the hottest parts of aircraft engines. This model will help optimising the performance of new component designs. You can read more about the results of the MICROMECH project in this recent article published by Madri+d (in Spanish only).
LED lights are the true heir to Edison’s electric bulb. They are a major breakthrough in lightning, but still require advances related to their manufacture using cheaper sustainable materials. In this interview (in Spanish), Rubén Costa (senior researher at IMDEA Materials) explains his vision of future light bulbs made of proteins.
Since the mid-50s the full-color display technology began its rise to success. The origins of this technology was the old-fashioned cathode ray tubes, which were displaced from the top about a decade ago by liquid crystal displays (LCDs) using a back-lighting system based on white inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Nowadays, two approaches are the front runners of this display field, namely i) the development of micropatterned films with color down-converters that partially transform the high-energy emission of the back-lighting system into the desired color, and ii) the fabrication of displays based on the so-called electroluminescence concept. In this article, Dr. Costa highlighted the new trends for color down-converters used for display applications. Here, cadmium-based QDs and fluorescent proteins are the leading examples of the future advances. Rubén D. Costa, IMDEA Materials Institute Full article
Rubén Costa, head of the research group on hybrid optoelectronic materials and devices at IMDEA Materials, has been selected as one of the Top Spanish Talents by the MIT Technology Review. He will be competing for a spot among the final list of Innovators Under 35 Europe 2017. Rubén Costa is leveraging his educational background to guide his work developing a lower-cost, more eco-friendly alternative to current lighting systems. This bio-hybrid technology, known as bio-WLED, also aims to prevent the many health risks associated with using more traditional WLED light sources. Through these advancements, Costa hopes to change the face (and future) of illumination systems and displays for millions around the world. Left: Pictures of the fluoresecent protein-based gels and rubber-like materials upon excitation at 310 nm. Right: Picture of a working Bio-HLED featuring a bottom-up energy transfer cascade protein coating placed onto a blue inorganic LED.
Take a moment to read this interview (in Spanish) with Rubén Costa, who is heading a new research line in the field of lightning and energy generation technologies.
An interview of Dr. Vinodkumar Etacheri, head of the Electrochemical Energy Storage group at IMDEA Materials Institute (Madri+d, in Spanish only)
J. Carlos Fernández-Toribio There is a clear evidence that composites are an increasing field of interest. Thus, the demand for composites end products has reached 22.2$ billion in 2015 . This is due to their low weight and high mechanical resistance. Therefore, lighter structural parts can be manufactured. For that reason, 50 % of the weight of the last generation of planes, such as Boeing 787 or Airbus A382 and A350, are made of composites. However, this high market size does not fit an industry which is not properly automatized and whose fabrication methods are highly inefficient. Moreover, composites show complex failure mechanisms. Those lead to the use of expensive and time consuming inspection methods. This is very inconvenient in areas where safety is a key, such as aeronautics. Read more
