Carlos Martí-Gastaldo, group leader of the FuniMAT group at the ICMol of the University of Valencia, has been awarded a prestigious Consolidator Grant of 2 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC) for the development of his project LIVINGPORE. The project aims to develop innovative strategies to "program" the chemistry and the structural response of porous MOF-type materials.
Carlos Martí Gastaldo was invited as a speaker in which he presented his work “Practising Reticular Chemistry with Titanium-Organic Frameworks”. Also Clara and Eloy, our first year PhD students have participated with their posters.
Our group is constantly expanding and a lot of new members have recently joined our lab. Larisha, Violeta, Eva and Garin will join as Postdoctoral Researchers while Eloy is starting with us the PhD journey. Also, a big group of students started joining us this year to develop their final Master thesis or as part of an internship program. Take a look on the team descriptions for further information.
The female part from our group have happily participated in the celebration of the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science” that took place on the 11th of February 2022. On this day, dedicated to celebrate women in science, they joined the CEIP Bertomeu Llorens i Royo (Catarroja) in order to present children the significance of women in research and science and bring closer to them the gender equality concept. They enjoyed a lot and received a lot of feedback from the school!
Our new company Porous Materials in Action (PMA) has received the first award of the StartupVLC 2021 “Parc Científic de la Universitat de València”, on the laboratory category. Here Carlos Martí-Gastaldo presents PMA: Youtube
On a recent interview, Carlos discusses the importance of porous materials as a new revolution against climate change. MOFs can represent the paradigm shift equally to the emergence of graphene or nanotubes. These MOFs are capable of capturing carbon dioxide, as well as obtaining water from the air in desert areas. They are like crystalline sponges on a molecular scale. They are highly porous materials formed by ordered networks of molecules in which the size of the pores, as well as some of their chemical and physical properties, can be designed to adapt them to specific needs.
To read the full interview:
here
FuniMAT is formed by mainly women. On the 8th March 2022 they reunited to stand up together for equality and celebrate International Women’s Day. We are very proud of the sense of sorority that exist in our group.
Our students have created a new Instagram account. With the goal to share their everyday lab life, you will find lot of different content: from new MOF structures to lunch breaks and fun times together. Follow us on @funimat_lab