About María

Email: maria.escudero(at)icn2.cat

 Marίa Escudero Escribano joined the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) as an ICREA Professor in September 2022. She graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Extremadura and obtained her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid (2011) with her research in electrocatalysis and surface nanostructuring on model surfaces, which she carried out at the Institute of Physical Chemistry ‘Rocasolano’ in Madrid (Spanish National Research Council, CSIC). She then started her postdoctoral research at the Technical University of Denmark (2012-2015) and was a 'DFF: Sapere Aude Research Talent' postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University (2015-2017). She joined the University of Copenhagen in March 2017 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in March 2017 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in January 2021. María was a ‘Villum Young Investigator’ (2018-2023). In 2022, María was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council for her project on atomic-scale tailored materials for electrochemical methane activation and production of valuable chemicals (ATOMISTIC).

María’s work has resulted in more than 70 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals including Science, Nature Chemistry, and Nature Materials, with over 6000 citations. Moreover, she is a co-inventor of three patent applications. She was the Chair of the Danish Electrochemical Society in 2018-2021 and has been the ISE Regional Representative for Spain since 2023. She is an Associate Editor of PRX Energy (American Physical Society), an Editorial Board Member of ChemElectroChem (Chemistry Europe, Wiley), and an Editorial Advisory Board Member of ACS Catalysis, ACS Energy Letters, ACS Electrochemistry (American Chemical Society), and Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research (Wiley).

María has received numerous awards in recognition of her groundbreaking research, including the Gold Medal of the European Young Chemist Award 2016 from EuChemS, the Princess of Girona Scientific Research Award 2018, the Electrochemical Society (ECS) Energy Technology Division Supramaniam Srinivasan Young Investigator Award 2018, the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry Young Researchers Award 2019, the Clara Immerwahr Award 2019, the Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship 2021, and the National Research Award “María Teresa Toral” 2024 in Chemical Science and Technology from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Since 2022, she has been an Elected Member of the Young Academy of Spain (see CV below).

Selected Awards and Honours

 This Lectureship recognises early-career researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of materials chemistry in their independent academic careers.

Announcement: https://blogs.rsc.org/jm/2022/01/19/2021-journal-of-materials-chemistry-lectureship-winner-maria-escudero-escribano/

Clara Immerwahr Award 2019

International level

Awarded by the German Cluster of Excellence "Unifying Systems in Catalysis" (UniSysCat), for her “outstanding contributions in the field of electrocatalysis and electrochemical surface science”. This award is granted annually since 2011 to a female researcher under 40 who has made outstanding contributions to the field of catalysis. More information about the Clara Immerwahr Award

Research highlight in Angewandte Chemie

Young Researchers Award from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry 2019

Awarded by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (Real Sociedad Española de Química, RSEQ) to “outstanding chemists under 40”. 

Research highlight in Angewandte Chemie

This prestigious award recognises annually an outstanding Spanish researcher under 35. In 2018, the jury highlighted the “scientific, technological and social impact” of María’s work, “which will contribute towards slowing climate change".

Awarded yearly to an "outstanding young researcher" (under 35) in the field of electrochemical energy technology by the Electrochemical Society (ECS). It was awarded to María for her "research on model electrodes which aims to overcome the bottlenecks that impede the large-scale uptake of electrochemical energy conversion technologies".

Awarded “Young Talent of the year 2018” by “Fuera de Serie” at a national level in Spain.

RSC Griess Lectureship Award 2017

International level

María was Griess Lectureship Awardee from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). As the Griess Lecturer 2017, she was invited by the RSC to give lectures at the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester, Loughborough and Derby during the Chemistry week 2017 in the UK.

SusChem Young Chemistry Researcher Award 2017

María received the Suschem Young Chemistry Researcher Award 2017 in the Postdoc category, awarded by the Spanish Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem) and the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), as the author of the best publication of 2016 in the field of Chemistry (Science, 2016).

CIDETEC Young Researcher in Electrochemistry Award 2016

Awarded by the Electrochemistry Group of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry at a national level in Spain to a young researcher (under 35) for their outstanding contributions in the field of electrochemistry.

Awarded by EuChemS to researchers under 35 “whose research in chemistry displays a high level of excellence and distinction”. “The winners were selected on the basis of their excellence in chemistry, originality and independent contribution thoroughness and depth of understanding of the research area, and future perspectives of their research.” Research highlight in Angewandte Chemie