Anna May, postdoc in our group, is from now on the new Communication & Outreach Officer at ICMAB. Anna holds a PhD in Materials Science and Technology and is currently studying a postgraduate course in Science Communication.
Nothing in science has any value to society if it is not communicated, and scientists are beginning to learn their social obligations. — Anne Roe (The Making of a Scientist (1953), 17)
This experience of two days gives the opportunity to scientists to see the dynamics of working in the media, with the aim that they learn to master the everyday situations, such as TV interviews, news writing, and press conferences, and learn to communicate science.
Apart from the audiovisual media, the course is also dedicated to radio programs, institutional communication, science communication agencies and science outreach on the Internet.
Some of the professionals that give the course are Graziella Almendral (Indagando TV), Ana Montserrat Rosell (Tres.14), Miguel Ángel Martín (Instituto RTVE), Marta Cáceres (Para todos La 2), Juan Antonio Senante (RTVE), Isidre Ramos (RTVE), Jaime Pérez del Val (CSIC), Pablo González Batista (M80), Adeline Marcos (Agencia SINC), Pere Buhigas (Lab24), and Marc de Semir (Fundación Bertelsmann).
In this study, authors demonstrate the formation of oriented piezoelectrically active α-quartz thin films directly on silicon. Films are prepared by dip-coating from alcohol/ water solutions of soluble silicic acid precursors plus surfactant or block copolymer structure-directing agents. Solvent evaporation drives the self-assembly of amorphous silica films composed of ordered arrays of pores. An appropriate thermal treatment results on epitaxial quartz films.
We congratulate the authors and specially our group member Martí Gich. You can read the full article
You can also read a highlight written by Jeff Brinker in the same issue: Quartz on Silicon. The integration of quartz with silicon may provide a route to fabricate advanced piezoelectric devices. Jeffrey Brinker and Paul G. Clem.