Escudero Escribano, María
ICREA Research Professor at Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2).
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
Short biography
María Escudero-Escribano graduated in Chemical Engineering from the University of Extremadura and obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the Institute of Physical Chemistry ‘Rocasolano’ (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2011. She then was a postdoctoral researcher at the Technical University of Denmark and Stanford University. In 2017, María joined the University of Copenhagen as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. Since September 2022, she is an ICREA Professor anrd Group Leader at ICN2. She has received numerous awards, including the European Young Chemist Award 2016, the Princess of Girona Scientific Research Award 2018, the ECS Energy Technology Division Young Investigator Award 2018, the RSEQ Young Researchers Award 2019, the Clara Immerwahr Award 2019, and the Journal of Materials Chemistry Lectureship 2021. In 2022, María has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant.
Research interests
My research is focused on the design and development of tailored interfaces and catalyst nanomaterials for sustainable energy conversion and synthesis of green fuels and chemicals. During my postdoctoral research, I studied the activity trends in oxygen reduction for fuel cells amongst alloys of Pt and lanthanides. We found that, by tuning the lanthanide contraction, the electrocatalytic properties could be controlled. This work was published in Science in 2016. Currently, I lead the NanoElectrocatalysis and Sustainable Chemistry Group at ICN2. Our main research areas include:
- Novel nanomaterials for renewable energy conversion and storage.
- Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide into renewable fuels and chemicals.
- Electrochemical activation and partial oxidation of methane.
- Electrosynthesis of value-added chemicals.
- Surface nanostructuring and atomic ensemble control.
- Multimetallic and multifunctional nanomaterials.