Tag: group

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.