The European Magnetism Association (EMA) has awarded its Young Scientist Award to Samuel Mañas, a Physics graduate and PhD from the University of Valencia with work carried out at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol), for his "revolutionary contributions to molecular magnetism".
Specifically, Mañas was awarded as a young researcher "for his contributions to molecular magnetism at the two-dimensional limit, isolating 2D magnets based on molecules and 2D hybrid heterostructures, combining spin-crossover molecular layers and inorganic materials in two dimensions", according to the decision published by the EMA.
With a degree in Physics from the Universitat de València, Samuel Mañas is currently a researcher at the Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands), where he began his postdoctoral stay within the Marie Sklodowska-Curie programme, a highly competitive European Commission programme to support research and innovation of excellence.
Samuel Mañas obtained his PhD in 2021 with a work on "Two-dimensional crystals and van der Waals heterostructures based on strongly correlated inorganic and molecular layered materials", carried out at the ICMol under the supervision of Full Professor of Inorganic Chemistry Eugenio Coronado.
That doctoral thesis by Samuel Mañas was already considered the best work of the year 2021 in the discipline of Nanoscience by the Specialised Group of Nanoscience and Molecular Materials, which is jointly formed by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry and the Spanish Royal Society of Physics.
Mañas focuses his work in condensed matter. Specifically, he studies both the synthesis and the structure and physical properties (electrical, magnetic, optical, thermal and mechanical) of solids.
His research focuses on low-dimensional quantum materials – both of inorganic and molecular nature - with special emphasis on the isolation and study of the electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic phases. This includes quantum spin liquids, 2D ferromagnets and antiferromagnets, as well as the assembly of these 2D materials as van der Waals heterostructures and with spin crossover molecular materials.
In the senior category, the EMA awarded the Dominique Givord Prize to Oliver Gutfleisch, professor at the University of Darmstadt, former scientific director of the Fraunhofer Research Institute for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies in Hanau and leader of the "De Magnete" group at the Max-Planck-Institute.
