Carla Fernandez-Rico wins the Women Interactive Materials Award
Carla Fernandez-Rico, an ETH Postdoctoral Fellow in the group of Soft and Living Materials, and Complex Materials, has been selected among six other talented scientists, as the 2023 winner of the Women Interactive Materials Award.
The award-winning research of Dr. Fernandez-Rico is centered on the development of bicontinuous materials at the microscale, using rather simple phase separation methods. While phase separation processes are the responsible for making our salad dressing to separate into oil and vinegar droplets, Carla’s approach consists on using polymer matrices to guide and control the separation of the two phases. The resulting material, shows very similar morphology to the structures found in bird feathers, and also extremely high mechanical toughness. In the future, Dr. Fernandez-Rico envisions to use this technology to control the structure of biodegradable and natural materials, and design the next generation of advanced functional materials for a more sustainable and greener future.
The Women Interactive Materials Award unites accomplished young female scientists from around the world each year. This year, six exceptionally talented finalists, including Dr. Fernandez-Rico, were chosen to showcase their research in Aachen. Each finalist was granted a 20-minute presentation slot to present their work and field questions from the jury. For her achievements, she received a certificate and 10.000 euros as part of the Women Interactive Materials Award.
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