NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY MASTER DEGREE

Dr. Tània Gumí, born 25 December 1975, is Lecturer Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Universitat  Rovira i Virgili (URV) from 2008. She worked in building and is active member of METEOR (Membrane Technology innovation center, www.citmeteor.com) research group.
Dr. Tània Gumí graduated in Chemistry from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1998 where she gained also a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2004. From 2005 to 2007 she was Postdoctoral researcher at the Institut Européen des Membranes of Montpellier (France). In May 2007 she joined the Departament d’Enginyeria Química of the URV as postdoctoral researcher.
Dr. Tània Gumí has scientifically contributed during the last 15 years to the Membrane research field, developing expertise in selective membrane preparation and characterization both organic polymeric and inorganic. Recently, she has focused her interest also in encapsulation technology for the controlled release of perfumes, and in micro membrane devices to be applied for enantiomeric separations.

Pascal Blondeau, born 9 may 1978, is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Nanosensors Group at the Department of Analytical and Organic Chemistry at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

Pascal Blondeau, graduated from the University of Montpellier in 2002, obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Madrid (UAM) and the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in 2007. After a postdoctoral position at the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Padova, he joined the Nanosensors group at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in 2009.

Pascal Blondeau doctoral thesis was on the design and synthesis of artificial receptors for anion recognition. Later on, during his postdoctoral stage at the University of Padova, he gained experience on the field of nanoscience by developing hybrid nanostructures for photonic devices based on carbon nanotubes. He currently works at developing anion sensors based on nanostructured materials.

M.C. Pujol born on 6th September 1973, is a member of the physics and crystallography teaching team at the University Rovira i Virgili. M. C. Pujol’s research career started in 1997, with her collaboration in the research performed in the group of physical chemistry, just after she became a member of the group Physics and Crystallography of Materials (FiCMA).

M.C. Pujol graduated from the University Rovira I Virgili with a degree in Chemistry in 1996 and later achieved a PhD from the same University in 2001. From that time she has been always working in the field of material physics, and more specially related with optical materials. Her profile acquired during these 15 years of research conforms to a strong basis in material physics and crystallophysics. During her post-doc stage at the Institute from Transuranium Elements (Karlsruhe, Germany), during 2002 and 2003 (ITU- Joint research center of the European Commission), she was also engaged in the preparation and synthesis of new ceramic UO2 compounds.

Her high rate of production of papers, with an average impact factor and a relatively high H factor (an average paper citation of 13), assures the constancy in her work. In the last years, she has been leading her own project related to the synthesis of nanocrystals and their characterization in the framework of RyC program supported by the Education and Science Ministry of Spain and European Social Fund under RYC2004-1453, and also, co-directing 5 thesis of PhD students. In this same context, these results have already been published in international journals (around 70 publications till now). Currently she is an Associate professor in the research group FiCMA, University Rovira i Virgili, 2009- till present.

Professor Francesc Pérez-Murano,  born 26 August 1966, is Research Professor at the Microelectronics Institute of Barcelona (IMB-CNM, CSIC). He is head of the nanofabrication and functional properties of nanostructures group.

Professor Perez-Murano graduated for the Autonomous Unviersity of Barcelona (UAB) with a degree in Physics, and later he gained the PhD in Science for the same University in 1989. He has made post-doctoral stages at the Microelectronics Center in Denmark, NIST in USA and AIST in Japan.  He has been associated professor at the Electronics Engineered department at UAB from 1995 to 2001, where he became vice-director of the Enginneering in school in 2000. In 2001, he joined IMB-CNM, CSIC, being promoted to research professor in 2007.  Professor Perez-Murano got the Award of Catalan Government to young researchers (2001) for  his pioneering work on nanofabrication.

Other achievements  or Porf. Perez-Murano are:

• Co-author of more than 120  articles in international refereed journal in teh areas of Nanoscience and nanotechnology
• Member of the Steering Committee of Micro and Nano Engineering Conference and Chairman of MNE-2006
• Supervisor of 6 PhD students (completed)
• Coordinator of one FP6 EU Strep project (NOVOPOLY) and CNM responsible for 3 FP6 EU projects and 2 FP7 EU
• Responsible for 6 national coordinated projects (involving a total of  10 different partners)
• Responsible for Nanofabrication facilities at CNM-CSIC (2001-2006)
• 3 granted patents
• Coordinating the Nanofabrication and Functional Properties of Nanostructures research group at CNM. Responsible of one sub-research line at CNM.

Professional Career

Professor F.  Xavier Rius, born 20 September 1955, is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Universitat  Rovira i Virgili. He is head of the research team in Chemometrics, Qualimetrics and Nanosensors.

Professor Rius graduated from the University of Barcelona with a degree in Chemistry, and later gained a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from the same University in 1982. After a postdoctoral year at the Biophysics Department of the University of Leeds, he joined the academic staff at the Faculty of Chemistry in Tarragona as a lecturer. In 1989 he spent a postdoctoral year at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He was promoted to Full Professor in 1991.

From Dic. 1988 till Jan. 1995 served as a Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at the URV. From Apr. 1997 till 2002 served as vice-rector of Research and from May 2002 till May 2006 as the director of the Doctoral School at the same University. Professor Rius has been awarded the Narcís Monturiol prize from the Generalitat of Catalonia.

Professor Rius contributed to the progress of the research areas in Chemometrics and Qualimetrics in Tarragona. More recently he has devoted his efforts to the development of chemical sensors based on the nanostructured materials. Specifically, he uses carbon nanotubes to build sensors to determine ions, molecules and microorganisms in real samples. The development of chemical sensors imbedded into textile fabrics (‘smart textiles’) is one of latest developments. He is cofounder of the company NT Sensors S.L., a spin-off from the URV. He is at present the academic coordinator of the master programme in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.