Bio
Prof. Jordi Sort received his PhD Degree in Materials Science from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 2002 (Extraordinary Award). The topic of his PhD dissertation was the study of magnetic exchange interactions in ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic systems. He worked for two years as Postdoctoral Researcher at the SPINTEC Laboratory (Grenoble) and subsequently stayed six months at Argonne National Laboratory (USA). He also performed long-term secondments at the Grenoble High Magnetic Fields Laboratory (five months) and at Los Alamos National Laboratory (four months). At present, Prof. Sort leads the “Group of Smart Nanoengineered Materials, Nanomechanics and Nanomagnetism (Gnm3)” at UAB, which focuses its research activities on the synthesis of a wide variety of functional materials (electrodeposited films, lithographed structures, porous materials, bulk metallic glasses, nanocomposites) and the study of their structural, mechanical, magnetic, and thermal properties. This research aims at enhancing the performance of these materials in new technological applications that go beyond the state of the art. Prof. Sort’s research activity was awarded by the Catalan Physical Society (Jordi Porta i Jué’s Prize, 2000), as well as by the Spanish Royal Physical Society (Young Researcher Award in Experimental Physics, 2003) and the Federation of Materials Societies (FEMS Prize in Materials Science & Technology, 2015) and UPC/Naturgy (Duran Farell Award for Technological Research, 2020). Prof. Sort has supervised 15 PhD Theses and is currently co-supervising the work of 5 more PhD students. So far, Prof. Sort has published around 330 articles that have received approximately 9900 citations (h=49) in ISI Web of Science. He has issued 6 patents and has managed 32 national/international research projects. Prof. Sort has been personally appointed as Invited/Plenary Speaker in more than 80 conferences.

Bio
Dr. Aliona Nicolenco received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Chemistry from Moldova State University and her Ph.D. degree in Electrochemistry in 2018 from Vilnius University, funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (“SELECTA” European Training Network). Her Ph.D. project encompassed the “green” electrochemical synthesis and structural characterization of Fe-based alloys and composites, as well as the investigation of their enhanced functional properties (mechanical, magnetic, corrosion/wear). After completing her Ph.D she did a postdoc at Autonomous University of Barcelona working on the design of advanced porous metallic materials by various synthetic approaches and the evaluation of their voltage-driven magnetoelectric properties. In 2019 she was awarded a “Senior researcher” position at the Institute of Applied Physics of Moldova. Since January 2021 she is a postdoctoral Marie Curie fellow based at Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.

Bio
Currently a postdoctoral research associate at Durham University studying magnonics and spin-wave devices in the group of Prof. Adekunle Adeyeye. Previously worked a postdoc at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona studying magneto-ionic materials and voltage-controlled magnetism in the group of Prof. Jordi Sort. Received his PhD from University of California, Davis, supervised by Prof. Kai Liu.

Bio
Dr. Alberto Quintana is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona where he carries out research in the field of photoresponsive oxides, in the synthesis and characterization of magnetic materials and the voltage control of their magnetic properties. Dr. Quintana pursued a PhD in Materials’ Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in the field of voltage control of magnetic properties by means of electrolyte-gating. Posteriorly, he moved to Washington DC as a Postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University, where he kept pursuing research in the field of magneto-ionics with special focus in solid-state approaches and the quest of novel ionic systems.