Women Talent Programme
Our Women Talent Programme involves a series of actions aimed at supporting women scientists and promoting visibility of their research activity, both inside and outside ICN2. This initiative is led by the Equal Opportunities Committee and funded through the Severo Ochoa Award as one of its crosscutting actions.
ICN2 is aware of the challenges that female researchers have to face in their careers. It is well known that the progression of women in the early stages of their research careers is characterised by a "pipeline" behaviour, which shows a large decrease in women pursuing a postdoc after obtaining a PhD. Fewer still reach senior or leadership positions. This constitutes a major challenge for women scientists in the intermediate stages of their research career who do not hold a permanent position. They are under strong pressure to demonstrate leadership positions, since funding schemes from public sources and competitive calls usually require such leadership skills to be already demonstrated.
The ICN2 Women Talent programme is aimed at overcoming these barriers by conferring the following Awards and Grants:
- Best Female PhD Thesis Award
- Best Published Paper - PhD Student Award
- Best Published Paper - Postdoc Award
- Women Talent Postdoc Grant
- Women Talent Senior Grant
These actions are expected to have a positive impact on the future of the professional careers of the awarded women, thus contributing to correct the biases that affect female researchers.
Awardees
Women Talent Programme
2026
Women Talent Senior Grants 2026:
Dr Kumara Cordero
Flexophotovoltaic effect in functional oxides probed by Atomic Force Microscopy (FlexoFOxAFM)
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2026:
Dr Abigail Seddon
MECH-POM: Mechanistic Elucidation of Catalytic Heterogeneous Water Oxidation using POM Catalysts
Best Published Paper Award - Postdoc 2026:
Dr Maria Chiara Spadaro
ZnO Nanostars Decorated with Mass-Selected Au Clusters for Photoluminescence
Best Published Paper Award - PhD Student 2026:
Dr Karen Stefani Mejía Carmona
Size Control of Highly Monodisperse Citrate-Stabilised Magnetite Nanoparticles in Aqueous Media: The Role of Cerium Cations
Best Female PhD Thesis Award 2026:
Dr Fanny Baumann
In-Situ Multimodal Analysis of Strain Evolution in Perovskite Solar Cells during Stability Assessment
Alumni Trajectory Award 2026:
Dr Zeila Zanolli
2025
ICN2 Best Published Paper Award - PhD Student 2025:
Dr Yu Jing
Best Female PhD Thesis Award 2025:
Razia Batool
Best Published Paper Postdoc ex aequo Award 2025:
Dr Marianna Sledzinska
MoS2 Phononic Crystals for Advanced Thermal Management
Best Published Paper Postdoc ex aequo Award 2025:
Dr Marta Delgà
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2025:
Dr Silvia Favero
Electrochemical Methane Oxidation to Green Fuels
Women Talent Senior Grant 2025:
Dr Rosa M. González Gil
NANION: Development of Free-Standing Nanostructured Prussian Blue Electrodes for High-Performance Zinc-Ion Supercapacitors
Senior Trajectory Awards 2025:
Dr María José Esplandiu
An interdisciplinary Scientific Journey of Adaptation and Reinvention
2024
Best Published Thesis ex aequo Award 2024:
Dr Ivana Cavaliere
Bioinspired and Biomimetic Micro/Nanoparticles for Medical Applications
Best Published Thesis ex aequo Award 2024:
Dr Ana Broto
Clip-off Chemistry Applied to the Synthesis of Rh(II)-based Complexes via Rational Cleavage of Metal-Organic-Polyhedra
Best Published Paper- PhD Student Award 2024:
Marta Ruiz Ruiz
Real-time microscopy of the relaxation of a glass
Best Published Paper- Postdoc Award 2024:
Dr Sara Martí Sanchez
Epitaxially Driven Phase Selectivity of Sn in Hybrid Quantum Nanowires
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2024:
Dr Roberta Farris
Thermal Properties of ALL-INorganic 2D perovskites (TP ALL-IN 2D)
Women Talent Senior Grant 2024:
Dr Sonia Ruiz Raga
Automated Multiplexed Impedance Spectroscopy with Artificial Intelligence data processing for stability assessment of perovskite solar cells (AMISAI)
2023
Best Published Thesis Award 2023:
Dr Maria Tenorio Tuñas
On-surface synthesis of nitrogen-doped graphene-based nanoarchitectures: 0D nanographenes, 1D nanoribbons and 2D nanoporous graphene
Best Published Paper- PhD Student Award 2023 (first place):
Dr Laura Hernandez Lopez
pH-Triggered Removal of Nitrogenous Organic Micropollutants from Water by Using Metal-Organic Polyhedra
Best Published Paper- PhD Student Award 2023 (second place):
Dr Xiaoman Mao
Intranasal Administration of Catechol-Based Pt (IV) Coordination Polymer Nanoparticles for Glioblastoma Therapy
Best Published Paper- Postdoc Award 2023:
Dr Juliana Jaramillo-Fernandez
Highly-Scattering Cellulose-Based Films for Radiative Cooling
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2023:
Dr Muriel Freixanet Gustà
SAPHNA (Novel Synthetic Strategies for Advanced Pt-Based Hollow Nanocrystals)
Women Talent Senior Grant 2023:
Dr Maria Soler
DANCE (Dielectric Nanophotonic Biosensors for Cell Studies)
2022
Best Published Thesis Award 2022:
Dr Ting Zhang
Zn-Based Metal-Organic Frameworks Derived Materials for High-Efficient Carbon Dioxide Electrochemical Reduction
Dr Marta Ruiz García
Design, Characterisation and Optimisation of a Novel Liposomal-Based Food Supplement Against Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Best Published Paper PhD Award 2022:
Dr Noemí Contreras Pereda
Synthesis of 2D Porous Crystalline Materials in Simulated Microgravity
Best Published Paper Postdoc Award 2022:
Dr Thaïs Grancha
Synthesis of Polycarboxylate Rhodium(II) Metal-Organic Polyhedra (MOPs) and their Use as Building Blocks for Highly Connected Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs)
2021
Best PhD Thesis Award 2021:
Dr Enelia Cristina Peláez Gutiérrez
Nanoplasmonic Biosensors for Clinical Diagnosis, Drug Monitoring and Therapeutic Follow-Up
Best Published Paper - PhD Student Award 2021:
Dr Olalla Calvo
Fast and Accurate Pneumocystis Pneumonia Diagnosis in Human Samples Using a Label-Free Plasmonic Biosensor
Best Published Paper - Postdoc Award 2021:
Dr Maria Soler
Engineering Photonics Solutions for COVID-19
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2021:
Dr Marianna Sledzinska
Phonon-Electron Coupling in Twisted 2D Layers Under Mechanical Strain
Women Talent Senior Grant 2021:
Dr María de la Cruz Cardeñosa
Alzheimer Diagnosis by Neurofilament Light Detection Employing Optical Silicon Sensors
2020
Best PhD Thesis Award 2020:
Dr Ceren Çamur
Advances in the Synthesis of MOFs at Scale
Best published paper - PhD student Award 2020:
Dr María del Rocío Rodríguez-Laguna
Modification of the Raman Spectra in Graphene-Based Nanofluids and its Correlation with Thermal Properties
Dr Kumara Cordero-Edwards
Flexoelectric Fracture-Ratchet Effect in Ferroelectrics
Best published paper - Postdoc Award 2020:
Dr Juliana Jaramillo
A Self-Assembled 2D Thermofunctional Material for Radiative Cooling
Women Talent Postdoc Grant 2020:
Dr Emily Nguyen
Evaluation of MoP for biosensing
Women Talent Senior Grant 2020:
Dr Adriana Figueroa
TeraHertz Emitters with SPINtronic devices
