Category: Group activities

Large participation of the N&N Group at the 2nd Scientific Meeting of BNC-b Students (PhD Meeting)

Written by Anna May on June 28, 2016. Posted in Conferences, Group activities, News, Science outreach.

June 29^th-30^th are devoted to the “2nd Scientific Meeting of BNC-b Students”, which will take place at the Sala d’Actes of the Facultat de Ciències i Biociències (UAB). The meeting is aimed to present the work done by the PhD students of the Barcelona Nanotechnology Cluster – Bellaterra (ICMAB, ICN2, IMB-CNM, UAB, ALBA), promoting networking among all the students in an academic and scientific environment.

The N&N group will have a large participation in the event, both from PhD students and Master and Undergraduate students:

Laura González (PhD student) will give a talk on “Evaluation of Inorganic nanoparticles in the model organism C. elegans” (Session 2, June 29^th, 12.15 h).
The following posters will be presented (Poster sessions: June 29^th10.45-12.00 h; June 30^th 10.30-11.15 h):
- Adsorption of toxic metal ions onto magnetic graphene oxide (Iván Gómez, Visiting PhD student)
- Encapsulating endothelial progenitor cell’s secretome for vascular remodeling therapies (Irene Anton, Master student)
- Magneto-plasmonic multimaterial nanoparticles (Miquel Torras and Adrià Gordillo, Undergraduate students)
- Production of bacterial nano-cellulose as a terrific natural polymer (Deyaa Youssef, Visiting PhD student)
- Stabilization of epitaxial quartz on Si from amorphous silica films (Qianzhe Zhang, PhD student)

The program of the event can be downloaded here.

For further information, please visit: http://congresses.icmab.es/jphd2016/

Anna Roig participa en el programa ‘Un investigador a la teva aula’

Written by Anna Roig on May 25, 2016. Posted in Group activities, News, Science outreach.

Anna Roig ha visitat EINA-Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona en el marc del programa ‘Un investigador a la teva aula’, on les investigadores i els investigadors de l’ICMAB s’acosten als centres educatius i porten els nous materials a les aules.

World day for safety and health at work 2016

Written by Anna May on April 28, 2016. Posted in Group activities, News.

Today, 28 April, is the World day for safety and health at work. This year, “Workplace Stress: a collective challenge” is the theme of the campaign.

In the N&N Group we are really aware of all the issues concerning lab safety, waste management, and health at work. That is why we would like to share 10 simple tips with you:

Never work alone in the lab. If working alone, leave the door open.
Work with labcoat, glasses and gloves.
Work under the fumehood when working with solvents and/or nanoparticles.
Be aware of what is happening around you in the lab.
Label all your samples and products, and leave a note if you leave an experiment running.
Be aware of the potential risks of the products you are using: corrosive, flammable, harmful for the environment, etc.
Separate well the residues generated.
Properly clean the glassware and equipment that you use and your workplace.
Before leaving the lab, make sure everything is in order.
Keep calm and work safe!

IMG-20160428-WA0000

Tomorrow (Friday, 11 am) there is a talk at ICMAB on “Waste generation and management in research centers and its committment with the environment”. We encourage you to go!

Farewell to Jana and welcome to Iván and Deyaa – Group Lunch and Lab Cleaning Day

Written by Anna May on April 1, 2016. Posted in Group activities, News, Welcome and farewell.

This Friday, after the Lab Cleaning (good job!) we had a N&N Group Lunch to say goodbye to Jana, who did a fantastic job at ICMAB and now is going back to ETH Zurich, and to welcome the two new visiting Ph.D. students, Deyaa, from Egypt, and Iván, from Colombia.

There were 15 of us today! The group always gets big in spring time with all the new students!

Open Ph.D. positions within the N&N Group

Written by Anna May on March 16, 2016. Posted in General News, Group activities, News, Projects News.

Thinking about starting a Ph.D? The N&N Group offers the following Ph.D. opportunities for this year 2016 (click here for a detailed description of each topic):

Engineering Bacterial Cellulose Nanocomposites
Investigation of new phenomena in novel multiferroics
Functionalized bacterial cellulose for skin tissue regeneration

Eligibility:

Candidates should be ready to enter an official doctoral programme in September 2016 (under Spanish Law). By this time, they must have obtained a university degree and a master degree; or must hold an official university qualification from a country of the European Higher Education Area with a minimum of 300 ECTS of official university studies, of which at least 60 are at masters’ level.
Candidates must have a strong commitment to scientific research and an excellent academic record (desirable above 8 in a scale of 10).
Candidates must have good working knowledge of English.
MINECO fellowship candidates may not have held a PhD contract exceeding 12 months by June 2016.

How to APPLY:

DEADLINE: Extended to 14th April 2016

Documentation required:

Personal data and CV.
Covering letter, including motivation for applying.
A copy of your Certified Academic Record, showing grades obtained (degree and masters). If these are not in Catalan, Spanish or English, applicants should attach an official translation in one of these languages.
Two letters of recommendation from lecturers or researchers with whom you have studied or worked and who can judge your potential as a PhD student. Only letters with official letterhead and signature will be accepted. Please be sure to inform your referees that their letters must be uploaded in the online application tool before deadline to provide the following information in the application form.

The ICMAB offers other Ph.D positions. More information following this link.

If you have further questions, or if there are particular issues regarding your application, please contact: Anna Roig (roig@icmab.es), Martí Gich (mgich@icmab.es), or Anna Laromaine (alaromaine@icmab.es).

The N&N Group was at Mater Brunch: Fotocataliti-qué?

Written by Anna May on February 12, 2016. Posted in Conferences, Group activities, News.

This last Thursday, Anna May, in representation of the N&N Group, went to “Mater Brunch: Fotocataliti-qué?“, a meeting about photocatalysis that took place at Materfad, the Materials Center in Barcelona. The topic of the session was the new materials based on photocatalysis that are being developed to improve the quality of life and of the urban environment.
Materfad organized a meeting between professionals, which counted with the experience of Breinco, Active Walls, FYM-Italcementi Group and the Iberian Association of Photocatalysis (AIF).
The program consisted of four presentations and a networking session accompanied by a buffet:
14:00: “Introducing the AIF (Iberian Association of Photocatalysis)” by David Almazán (Iberian Association of Photocatalysis).
14:15 h: “Photocatalysis inside buildings” by Jesús Serra (Active Walls).
14:30: “Key issues on cement-based photocatalytic products” by Rafael Jurado (FYM-Italcementi Group).
14:45 h: “Technology AirClean®: flooring and facades that reduce air pollution” by Gemma Pages (Breinco).
Although the meeting was basically dedicated to materials for construction (either indoors or outdoors), it is always good to know the priorities, state of the market and companies interested in photocatalysis, since our group is also working in this field.
Some interesting facts that were mentioned were the high degree of contamination in big cities, such as Barcelona; the consequences of this high pollution in people’s health (high mortality), although people are not aware of it, or the fact that Barcelona does not comply with the existing NOx limits.
Another think to take into account is that the air of our houses or workplaces (indoors), where we spend more than 95 % of our time, is also polluted, although we do not notice it.
The speakers mentioned that there are not conclusive results about the diminishment of the pollution when using these photocatalytic materials: experiments outdoors show results from 15 to 40 % of reduction of NOx, whereas experiments indoors show results up to 90 % reduction.

Happy Chinese New Year! – A Monkey year

Written by Anna May on February 5, 2016. Posted in General News, Group activities, News.

Next Sunday, February 7, 2016, is Chinese New Year’s Eve (除夕), and the next day, February 8, 2016, is the Chinese New Year’s Day (初一), the “First One” on the Chinese Calendar.

This next year will be a year of the Monkey. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac cycle, and Monkey is the 9th of it. Every 12 years there is a Monkey year. Interestingly, Monkey years are all multiples of 12 (since 12 AD up to now).

We wish everybody a Happy Chinese New Year, especially for Qianzhe, who will have to work during the Chinese holidays!

Anna Laromaine will give the next ICMAB Periodical Lecture

Written by Anna May on January 25, 2016. Posted in Conferences, Group activities, News.

Next Monday, February 1st, at 12 pm, Dr. Anna Laromaine, member of our group, will give the ICMAB Periodical Lecture. Anna will talk about “Caenorhabditis elegans and bacterial cellulose: exploiting nature to build materials”.

Short abstract :
Many researches have been inspired by nature, from the synthesis of materials mimicking our environment to the evaluation of materials using in vivo animal models. In this talk, I will briefly introduce two approaches that we have been working recently in the group.
First, I will present the use of the small animal model, Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). The characteristics of this model organism endorse this 1 mm long nematode as an ideal living system for the primary screening of engineered nanoparticles in a standard synthetic laboratory. I will present how using the worm, we assessed iron oxide nanoparticles in a simple and facile way.
On the other hand, I will present how a bacterial strain can produce cellulose (named bacterial cellulose (BC)), of the same molecular formula as vegetal cellulose; however exhibiting a higher degree of polymerization and better crystallinity. BC also has high porosity, transparency in the UV-NIR and a high water holding capacity. I will show how we controlled its structure and fabricate nanocomposites that can respond to external stimulus.

“Caenorhabditis elegans and bacterial cellulose: exploiting nature to build materials”
By: Dr. Anna Laromaine
Date: Monday, 1st February
Time: 12 pm
Place: ICMAB Meeting room