María Cuartero from Murcia and Gastón Crespo from Argentina will lead UCAM-SENS, the first center of this specialty in Europe
The UCAM gives a strong boost to its research work with the incorporation to its faculty, as extraordinary professors, of the Argentine-Spanish Gastón Crespo and the Murcian María Cuartero, who thus returns to her land carrying a European project of the highest level, ERC Starting Grant of 1.6 million euros. Both researchers obtained the numbers 1 and 2, respectively, in the last Ramón y Cajal call in the area of Chemical Sciences. In recognition of her scientific career, María has just entered as a number academician at the Young Academy of Spain for the next five years, and was also appointed associate editor of the prestigious scientific journal ‘Analytical Chemistry’, of the American Chemical Society .
Once the president of the University, José Luis Mendoza, personally closed the incorporation of the two researchers, this week they traveled from Sweden to settle in the HiTech, high technology incubator in health, sports and food of the Catholic University of Murcia .
Among his first tasks are setting up the laboratories, managing the acquisition of new equipment and the selection of about fifteen pre- and postdoctoral researchers, who will work under his direction, thus forming the team of UCAM-SENS scientists, which was born with the inspiration to be a world reference sensor chemistry center, the first in Europe. Its fundamental objectives will be to develop top-quality research, offer training of excellence at master’s and doctorate levels, promote innovation and scientific entrepreneurship, and transfer knowledge to the entire society, especially the productive fabric.
“We are going to continue with the lines of research that we had been developing in Sweden, first by carrying out a detailed study of the chemical process of the sensors in the laboratory, and then transferring their application to sports, health, food and the environment,” he explains. María Cuartero, for whom «the UCAM has made a great commitment, the Region of Murcia being a unique environment to carry out these studies». To this end, “we will have researchers who were already part of our team in Sweden and we will incorporate young people from Murcia to do their doctorate”.
In this sense, Gastón Crespo specifies that the objective, set by the president of the University, “is to create UCAM-SENS and make it an international benchmark research center on sensors, where the basic research-industrial fabric relationship will be key. And it is that “by making chemical sensors we are committed to the digital transformation of the sports, health, food and environment sectors”.
For the Vice President for Research, Estrella Núñez, “that these two scientists have set their sights on UCAM to return to Spain is for us a privilege and a consequence of the commitment of our president, José Luis Mendoza, to develop quality science, promoting and financing the return of young scientists, since we face these incorporations with the University’s own funds». With them “we take the first step to create UCAM-SENS, an international reference center in sensor chemistry, reinforcing UCAM’s commitment to increasing quality science in the Region of Murcia”.
Maria Cuartero: Doctor in chemistry and expert in electroanalysis, especially applied to health and the environment. Best doctoral thesis of the Royal Spanish Society of Analytical Chemistry, postdoctoral researcher of the European program Marie Curie, Early Career Analytical Electrochemistry Prize by the International Society of Electrochemistry. She has formed two technology-based companies, Ramón y Cajal researcher number 2 in the 2021 call in Chemical Sciences, professor and teacher at The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, holder of a European project ERC Starting Grant of 1.6 million euros, has published 96 scientific articles mainly in the areas of analytical chemistry, electrochemistry and general chemistry (h-index of 29).
Gaston Crespo: Doctor in nanoscience and nanotechnology, expert in chemical sensors based on electrochemical and optical principles, with special application to sports and ‘wellbeing’ (wellbeing at work). Inventor of solid contact ion sensors using carbon nanotubes. He has worked for 6 years at the University of Geneva with Professor Eric Bakker, an icon in electrochemistry. Young Researcher Award from Sensors magazine, Ramón y Cajal researcher nº1 in the 2021 call for Chemical Sciences, professor at The Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden since 2017 and founder of his research group ‘Chemical Sensing’, has raised 5 million euros for investigations. He has formed three technology-based companies, published more than 120 scientific articles and trained and supervised a significant number of doctors and researchers (h-index of 42).
#UCAM #incorporates #researchers #world #sensor #chemistry