Principal Investigator:
Assist. Prof. Dr. Maria Ibáñez
Maria Ibáñez was born in La Sénia (Spain). She graduated in physics at the University of Barcelona, where she also obtained her PhD in 2013. Her PhD thesis was qualified Excellent Cum Laude and awarded with the Honors Doctorate by the University of Barcelona. Her PhD research was funded by a Spanish competitive grant (FPU) which supported her to conduct short-term research stays in cutting-edge laboratories. In particular, she worked at CEA Grenoble (2009), the University of Chicago (2010), the California Institute of Technology (2011), the Cornell University (2012) and the Northwestern University (2013). In 2014, she joined the group of Prof. Dr. Kovalenko at ETH Zürich and EMPA as a research fellow where in 2017 she received the Ružička Prize. In September 2018 she became an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) at IST Austria and started the Functional Nanomaterials group.
Office: I23.O2.012
E-mail: mibanez@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 664 7935557
Research Technician:
Magali was born in France. She first studied Chemical Engineering at the École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille in her native France. She received her PhD in Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry in 2007. She then worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the group of Nicholas J. Westwood at St. Andrews University, U. K. then at the Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Orléans, France. She has experience in heterocyclic and medicinal chemistry as well as in multistep synthesis. She then joined, in 2016, the company Greenpharma in Orléans, France as a medicinal chemistry manager to develop hemisynthesis and bioisosteres of natural compounds scaffolds. She joined the Ibáñez group in November 2020 as a project technician.
Office: I23.O2.036
E-mail: magali.lorion@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
PostDocs:
E-mail: sharona.horta@ist.ac.at
Shengduo Xu was born in China. He received his BE degree and Master degree in Energy Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. He went to the University of Queensland in Australia and joined Zhigang Chen’s group in October 2017 as a Ph.D. student, and received his Ph.D. degree in November 2021. In April 2022 he joined the Ibáñez group as a postdoc. He is currently working on flexible thermoelectric materials and devices, and miniaturization of thermoelectric coolers.
E-mail: shengduo.xu@ist.ac.at
Dr. Abid Raza
Abid Raza was born in Sahiwal, Pakistan. He received his B.S. degree in electronics engineering in 2012 from COMSATS University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan and his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan in 2014, where he is currently pursuing his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Fahad Mumtaz Malik. His research focuses on nonlinear robust control and observer design for different applications in the field of engineering science. Abid joined the Ibáñez group in February 2022 as a Predoctoral Visiting Scientist. During the following years, he will help to develop our setup for the high throughput discovery of thermoelectric materials.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: abidraza8@gmail.com
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Dr. Andreu Bonet Navarro
Andreu Bonet Navarro was born in 1995 in Deltebre, Spain. He obtained a B.AS in Chemistry at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Tarragona, where he developed a project focused on crystallography. Then he pursued an M.SC in Nanotechnology at the same university in 2017-2018, in collaboration with FiCMA research group, where he kept working on material science and nanotechnology. Afterwards, he started to be interested in renewable energies and embarked on a doctoral thesis in Eurecat Technological center of Catalonia in collaboration with MEMTEC group in URV where he was working on electroreduction of atmospheric CO2 for fuel cell batteries applications from 2018 to 2021. During his PhD studies he automatized his experiments to increase data production, repeatability, and quality. While doing that, he got passionate about automatization and realized that we would need that tool to increase work efficiency and production, particularly in science, but also in many other fields, to accelerate the green transition. After his PhD, he remained one extra year in Eurecat, collaborating with people from different fields to automatize chemical processes. Finally, in 2022 he joined the Ibáñez group, where he will be building a high-throughput setup for the discovery of thermoelectric materials.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: andreu.bonetnavarro@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Dr. Igor Echevarría
Igor Echevarría was born in Spain. He made his PhD at the University of Burgos under the supervision of the Profs. Gustavo Espino and Roberto Quesada and completed it in September 2022. He joined the Ibáñez group in October 2022 as a postdoc for working on the synthesis of Prussian Blue Analogs for electrochemical applications.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: igor.echevarrla@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Dr. Mario Palacios
Mario was born in Valencia (Spain) and received his PhD in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Valencia in 2021. His thesis was focused on the synthesis and characterization of molecular magnetic materials for spintronic applications. Before completing his thesis, in 2019, Mario carried out a 3-month research internship at ETH Zürich under the supervision of Prof. Salvador Pané, where he learned to combine porous coordination polymers with small-scale robotic platforms. After completing the PhD thesis, Mario moved to the Czech Republic to conduct his postdoctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Martin Pumera. There, he developed hot topics such as light-propelled micromotors, 3D-Printing, and surface functionalization of 2D materials. In January 2022, Mario joined Ibañez group as a postdoctoral researcher and is involved in preparing new Prussian Blue Analogs to be applied in sustainable, efficient, and low-cost batteries.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: mario.palacios@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Dr. Rhys Bunting
Office: I23.O2.006
E-mail: rhys.bunting@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
PhD Students:
Mariano Calcabrini
Mariano Calcabrini was born in Quilmes, Argentina. He graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires in 2017. During his Master he worked in sol-gel processing of silica gels and nanoparticles. In March 2019 he joined Ibáñez’s group as a PhD candidate studying thin film thermoelectrics and surface chemistry.
Office: I23.O2.007
E-mail: mariano.calcabrini@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Tobias Kleinhanns
Tobias Kleinhanns was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He graduated in Materials Science from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. In 2019, he received a master’s degree also in Materials Science from the University of Stuttgart. During his Master’s thesis he worked on the synthesis and characterization of heterostructured nanowires. Subsequently, he joined the graduate school of the Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria as a Ph.D candidate and affiliated with the Ibañez group in June 2020.
Office: I23.O2.008
E-mail: tobias.kleinhanns@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Seungho Lee
Seungho Lee was born in South Korea. He graduated in Material Science and Engineering from Kookmin University. He received a master’s degree in Energy Science and Engineering from Daegu Kyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in 2016. The topic was the synthesis and characterization of nanocrystals for energy devices. In April 2019 he joined the Ibáñez group. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of colloidal heteronanostructures.
Office: I23.O2.008
E-mail: seungho.lee@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Christine Fiedler
Christine Fiedler was born in Barbados and is also Austrian. She graduated in 2016 from the University of the West Indies Cave Hill, Barbados, with First Class Honours in Chemistry with Biochemistry. She received her master’s degree in 2020 from the Johannes Kepler University in Linz Austria in Polymer Chemistry. Her work focused on the synthesis and engineering of Janus micro/nanomotors and nanoparticle synthesis. Christine started her PhD studies in September 2020 and joined the Ibañez group to work on the processing of thermoelectric materials by solution methods.
Office: I23.O2.007
E-mail: christine.fiedler@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Anna Smirnova
Anna Smirnova grew up in the United States, in South Carolina, and attended Duke University. She graduated in 2022 with a B.S. degree in Chemistry with honors. Her bachelors thesis studied polymer additives in perovskite materials. She completed an internship with the Ibanez group in the Summer of 2021 and is returning for a year-long internship.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: anna.smirnova@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Abayomi Lawal
Abayomi was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lagos. His thesis was titled “Constructal design of combined heat sink with various microchannel shapes”. His research focused on the numerical investigation into the thermal performance of combined heat sinks for the thermal management of microelectronic devices. Abayomi joined the Ibáñez group in October 2022 as a scientific intern and will help to develop our setup for the high throughput discovery of thermoelectric materials.
Office: I23.O2.008
E-mail: abayomi.lawal@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Rotation Students:
Angelina Castro Trujillo
Angelina was born in Mexico. She received her Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 2021. Then she was part of the ERASMUS Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion program and received a Master in Material Science from the University of Picardie Jules Verne in 2022. Angelina joined the Ibáñez group in March of 2023 as a rotation student. Her research focuses on ink formulation for thin film fabrication with the spraying technique.
Office: I23.O2.008
E-mail: angelina.castrotrujillo@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Visiting Students:
Mateja Hrast
Mateja Hrast was born in Slovenia. She received her Masters degree in Physics from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 2016. She is currently doing a PhD at the same university. During her PhD study, she worked at Jozef Stefan Institute, in Slovenia. Her field of study is modelling atomic and molecular structure and electronic processes. In her PhD thesis, she is focusing on the Auger process in ultra-fast-dissociating molecules. She joined the Ibáñez group in March 2023 as a visiting scientist.
Office: I23.O2.005
E-mail: mateja.hrast@gmail.com
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Francesco Milillo
Francesco Milillo was born in Bari, Italy. In 2021, he obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Aldo Moro University of Bari. His Bachelor’s thesis was focused on the preparation and characterization of drug delivery carriers, based on liposomes and designed to improve Curcumin absorption by colon epithelial cells. He is currently a two-year Master’s degree student in Chemical Sciences at the University of Bari. He earned a Global Thesis fellowship from his University, which lets Italian students to develop their Master’s thesis project in foreign universities and research institutes. He has the opportunity to be supervised by the Ibáñez Group and to be trained in the synthesis and characterization of thermoelectrical materials, on which his Master’s thesis project will be focused.
Office: I23.O2.036
E-mail: francesco.milillo@ist.ac.at
Phone: +43 (0)2243 9000-2117
Former members:
| Name | Year | Position in the group | Current position |
| Marian Janik | 2019 | Rotation Student | PhD student in Katsaros Group (IST) |
| Yu Zhang | 2019 | Visiting Student | PhD student at IREC |
| Wei Tan | 2019 | Summer Intern | Bachelor student at Imperial College |
| Guillem Montaña Mora | 2019 | Visiting Student | PhD student in IREC |
| Doğukan Hazar Apaydın | 2019-2020 | Postdoc | Postdoc TU Wien |
| Juan Carlos Sobarzo Ponce |
2019 |
Rotation Student | PhD student in Waitukaitis Group (IST) |
| Maximilian Ritter | 2020 | Summer Intern | PhD student at ETH Zurich |
| Anna-Maria Fuchsberger | 2020 | Summer Intern | Student at TU Wien |
| Christoph Bartmann | 2020 | Summer Intern | Student at TU Wien |
|
Alwin Meledeth |
2020 | Master student | OMV company |
| Sajal Naduvile Thadathil | 2021 | Rotation Student | Rotation Student (IST) |
|
Shiva Safari |
2021 | Rotation Student | PhD student in Modic Group (IST) |
|
Soumyadip Mondal |
2021 | Rotation Student | PhD student in Freunberger Group (IST) |
|
Kemal Yorulmaz |
2021 | Intern | |
| Guillem Montaña Mora | 2021 | Visiting Student | PhD student in IREC |
| Anna Smirnova | 2021 | Scientific Intern | Bachelor student Duke University |
| Tanmoy Ghosh | 2021 | Postdoc | Postdoc at RWTH Aachen University |
| Yu Liu | 2019-2021 | Postdoc | PI at the Hefei University of Technology |
| Sergi Sànchez Ribot | 2021 | Scientific Intern | |
| Maryna Dryhailo | 2021 | Scientific Intern | Master (Italy) |
| Lorena Layana | 2021 | Rotation Student | Rotation Student (IST) |
| Bhargavi Pant | 2021 | Rotation Student | Rotation Student (IST) |
| Daniel Balazs | 2020-2022 | Postdoc | Staff Scientist (IST) |
| Marios Triantafyllou | 2021-2022 | Scientific intern | PhD student at the University of Crete |
| Prathamesh Patil | 2021-2022 | Scientific intern | Scientific intern (IST) |
| Cheng Chang | 2019-2022 | Postdoc | Associate Professor at the Beihang University |
| Maria Garcia Ramon | 2021-2022 | Scientific intern | Master at the Universidad del País Vasco |
| Vladyslav Kovtunovych | 2022 | Scientific intern | Bachelor in Czech Republic |
| Aiswarya Rayaroth Puthiyaveettil | 2022 | Scientific intern | Rotation Student (IST) |
| Ke Xiao | 2022 | PhD student | PhD student at the University of Barcelona |
| Aiswarya Rayaroth Puthiyaveettil | 2023 | Rotation Student | Rotation Student (IST) |
| Samuel Hajek | 2023 | Rotation Student | Rotation Student (IST) |