Cerdanyola del Vallès, 26th September 2017. On Friday 22th, the ALBA Synchrotron held its first Early-Stage Researcher Day, a day dedicated to PhD students doing their research at the facility. 8 PhD students presented their projects related to a variety of research fields, for instance biology, accelerators and radiofrequency, environmental chemistry, applied physics and materials science.
Albert Castellví, in his last year, talked about the radiation effects in molecules. Isidro Crespo, in collaboration with the Wageningen University & Research, studies the molecular mechanism involved in plant growth. Nerea Bernardo showed her research about antibiotic resistance. Next, Zahra Hazami talked about her work in the accelerators division, developing a solid state amplifier for the 3rd harmonic cavity of the ALBA Storage Ring. Harold Moreno presented his industrial PhD in RF plasma sources for optical surface cleaning, done in collaboration with IBSS Group, Inc. Then, was Edmundo Fraga's turn, whose thesis objective is to design and build a high pressure and temperature cell for the study of cements with synchrotron light, in association with Universidade da Coruña. Next, Anna Mandziak, PhD student in collaboration with Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano, showed her work in transition metal oxides, promising candidate materials for future spintronic devices. Finally, Daniel Ruano, collaborating with Instituto de Tecnología Química de la Universitat Politècnica de València, talked about his study of the chemical properties of metal nanoparticles.
The event was chaired by the head of the Experiments Division, Miguel Ángel García Aranda. At the end, the ALBA Synchrotron's Director, Caterina Biscari, was in charge of the closing remarks, remembering her period as a PhD student, working on quantum electrodynamics. She also acknowledged their participation and congratulated them for their current work in ALBA. In her words, "this is a great opportunity for you to focus on your project, develop your career and become an expert in a scientific area".
From left to right: Harold Moreno, Daniel Ruano, Anna Mandziak, Isidro Crespo, Albert Castellví, Edmundo Fraga and Nerea Bernardo. On the right, Caterina Biscari closing the event.
