María Escudero Escribano

ICREA Professor & Group Leader

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 Electrochemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid (2011). She then started her postdoctoral research at the Technical University of Denmark (2012-2015) and at Stanford University (2015-2017). She joined the University of Copenhagen in 2017 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor and Group Leader and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2022, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant (European Research Council) for her project ATOMISTIC.

María’s work has resulted in more than 70 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals including Science, Nature Chemistry, and Nature Materials. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her groundbreaking research, including the Gold Medal of the European Young Chemist Award (2016), the Princess of Girona Scientific Research Award (2018), the Electrochemical Society (ECS) Energy Technology Division 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 Spanish National Research Award “María Teresa Toral” in Chemical Science and Technology (2024). Since 2022, she has been an elected member of the Young Academy of Spain.

Gabriel Floriano Costa

• Project: In-situ investigations of electrochemical C-N coupling

• Ph.D.: Physical Chemistry, University of Campinas, Brazil

• Undergraduate: Bsc in Chemistry, University of Campinas, Brazil

Gabriel graduated in Chemistry (2019) and obtained his PhD in Physical Chemistry (2024) at the University of Campinas (Brazil). His Ph.D. was focused on in-situ investigations of the activity of copper-based materials for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction to ammonia, under the supervision of Prof. Raphael Nagao. He spent one year at the University of Michigan (USA) where he characterized oxide-derived copper electrocatalysts with in-situ Raman spectroscopy under the supervision of Prof. Nirala Singh. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the NanoESC Group, working on in-situ investigations of urea synthesis from the co-reduction of nitrate and carbonate within the European EIC project “ICONIC”.

Silvia Favero

• Project: In-situ characterization of electrocatalysts for methane conversion

• Ph.D.: Imperial College London, United Kingdom

• Meng: Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Silvia graduated with a MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2019, appearing on the Dean’s list (top 10 students of the class) every year, and receiving the Ken Weale Price and several bursaries. She completed her Ph.D. on Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction in 2023, for which she was granted the Bansal bursary, the RSC collaboration grant and the Towend prize, awarded annually for outstanding original research or critical analysis. She then studied Electrochemical Oxidation Reactions in the context of a PostDoc at Imperial College. In 2024, she started a PostDoc in the NanoESC Group, focusing on using operando techniques to study the electrochemical partial oxidation of methane.

Camilo Arturo Mesa

• Project: Spectroelectrochemical studies of electrocatalysts for co-electrolysis

• Ph.D.: Imperial College London, United Kingdom

• M.Sc.: Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden and Univ. Bologna, Italy

• Undergraduate school: Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia

Camilo graduated in Chemistry (2008) and M.Sc. in Materials (2011), completed his Ph.D. at Imperial College London, ICL (2019), obtaining the first prize for both, best M.Sc. and Ph.D. thesis at University of Bologna and ICL respectively. Until 2023, Camilo held a postdoctoral position at the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM–UJI), where he studied the limiting kinetic and mechanistic factors of (photo)electrocatalytic reactions via in-situ techniques. He has co-authored >35 papers, including JACS and Nature Chemistry, with over 1700 citations. Currently, Camilo holds a senior postdoctoral position in the NanoESC Group, focusing his research on in-situ characterization of electrocatalysts for co-electrolysis.

Sanchayita Mukhopadhyay

• Project: Hybrid electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production

• Ph.D.: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune (IISER Pune), India

• M.Sc.: University of Hyderabad, India

Sanchayita was born in Kolkata, India. She obtained her master’s degree in Physical Chemistry in 2017 and completed her Ph.D. in Electrochemistry from IISER Pune in 2024. Her doctoral work focused on ligand-assisted molecular electrocatalysis and molecular charge storage. She explored the structure-activity relationship towards important redox reactions like oxygen reduction and evolution as well as their applications in energy devices such as rechargeable zinc-air batteries and supercapacitors. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher in the NanoESC Group, working on hybrid electrocatalysts for green hydrogen production.

Sebastián Murcia López

• Project: Materials and devices for energy storage through electrocatalysis

• Ph.D.: Universidad de Sevilla, Spain

• M.Sc.: Universidad de Sevilla, Spain and Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia

Sebastián graduated in Chemical Engineering in 2007 and completed his Ph.D. at the Institute of Materials Science of Sevilla in 2013. After this, he joined the Catalonian Institute for Energy Research (IREC), where he worked on several topics including photo- and electro-catalysis for energy storage. During this period, he held several competitive grants (Juan de la Cierva, MSCA-COFUND), and was PI of National and Horizon Europe projects in topics related to Power-to-X technologies. He also carried out a one-year postdoctoral stay at Politecnico di Torino. His work has resulted in >40 scientific publications. Currently, he holds a Ramón y Cajal contract to develop materials and devices for electrochemical applications.

Pilar Sánchez Peña

• Project: Novel nanomaterials as electrocatalysts for water splitting

• Ph.D.: Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Pilar was born in Terrassa (Barcelona, Spain) in 1994. She graduated in Chemistry in 2016. She obtained her MSc in Electrochemistry, Science and Technology in 2017 and her Ph.D. in Bioelectrochemistry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2022. During her Ph.D., she improved electrodes and membranes of bioelectrochemical systems, including the study of new catalysts for microbial electrolysis and fuel cells, as well as different techniques for their correct deposition on the electrode. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Nanoelectrocatalysis and Sustainable Chemistry Group, and her research focuses on novel electrocatalytic materials for renewable energy conversion.

Jaxiry Shamara Barroso Martínez

• Project: In-situ investigations of tailored electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction

• Undergraduate School: BSc in Chemistry, University of Guanajuato, Mexico

• Graduate School: MSc in Electrochemistry, Center of Research and Technological Development in Electrochemistry (CIDETEQ), Mexico

Jaxiry is working on fabricating and characterising catalyst materials for oxygen electrocatalysis and electrochemical CO2 reduction. She will combine classical electrochemical methods with in-situ microscopic and spectroscopic characterisation techniques to investigate the structure-property relations of electrocatalyst materials under different environments and to elucidate the intermediates and products involved during electrocatalytic reactions.

Gabriele Cioli

• Project: Direct electrochemical methane conversion into valuable chemicals

• Undergraduate School: BSc in Industrial Chemistry, University of Bologna, Italy

• Graduate School: MSc in Industrial Chemistry, University of Bologna, Italy

Gabriele was born in 1999 and graduated in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna. His journey into electrocatalysis began during his Master's thesis, where he investigated the impact of gas impurities on the performance of a CO2 electrolyzer. Gabriele’s Ph.D. work is focused on developing tailored materials to selectively catalyze the direct electrochemical conversion of methane into methanol. To do so, he combines traditional electrochemical methods with in-situ spectroscopic and microscopic characterization techniques.

Nathalie Ginette Mbombo Hermans

• Project: Novel nanomaterials for selective electrocatalytic reactions 

• Undergraduate School: BSc in Chemistry, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

• Graduate School: MSc in Chemistry, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Nathalie carried out her Master's thesis on methane detection through the investigation of the role of modified graphene decorated with nanoparticles. Currently, she is a Ph.D. student working on novel nanomaterials as active, stable, and selective electrocatalysts for electrochemical oxidation reactions. Her focus will be on the design, development, and characterization of these new materials.

Grega Venturini

• Project: In-situ characterisation of electrochemical reactions and materials for renewable fuels production

• Undergraduate School: BSc in Chemistry, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

• Graduate School: MSc in Photochemistry and Molecular Materials, University of Bologna, Italy

Grega is working on developing new approaches for electrochemical activation of methane. His focus is on systems that generate highly active species, capable of reacting with methane to form methanol. Using traditional methods and in-situ spectroscopic characterisation, the goal is to prepare active, stable and selective electrode materials capable of converting a greenhouse gas into a green liquid fuel and understand the underlying reaction mechanism.