Our research

ICN2 Groups and Units

Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures

Group leader: Clivia M. Sotomayor-Torres

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Overview

Main research lines

  • Nanophononics
  • Nanophotonics
  • Nanoscale thermal transport
  • 2D materials
  • Optomechanics
  • Nanofabrication
  • Oxide-based nanostructures
  • Radiative Cooling

Group leader

Sotomayor Torres, Clivia Marfa

ICREA Research Professor and Group Leader

ICREA Research Prof. Dr Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres was awarded her PhD in physics in 1984 by the University of Manchester (UK). She then held tenured academic appointments at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Glasgow in the UK, before becoming a C4 professor at Universität Wuppertal (Germany) in 1996. From 2004 to 2008 she was a research professor at the Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork (Ireland). Since May 2007 she has been an ICREA Research Professor based at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (formerly, the ICN).

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She has received awards from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Nuffield Foundation and an Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International (USA). In 2020 she was awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to lead a five-year project (2021-2025) to develop a disruptive technology based on phononic interconnects to reduce energy consumption of electronic circuits.

Prof. Dr Sotomayor Torres, who is a member of the Academia Europeae, is author of over 560 scientific papers, 515 of which are indexed (ORCID, WoS, Researcher ID: E-8418-2010), has an h-index of 49 and over 9500 citations. She edited six books on low dimensional structures and nanofabrication.

She leads a strong team working on phonon engineering and is actively engaged in European research. She represents the ICN2 in the Nanoelectronics AENEAS Joint Undertaking (Chamber B).

During 2020 Prof. Sotomayor Torres held the following commissions of trust:

  • Coordinator of the EU FET Open project, PHENOMEN (full title: All-phononic circuits enabled by opto-mechanics)
  • Member of the Expert Committee for the Excellence Strategy of German Universities
  • Board member of the Danish National Research Foundation
  • ERC panel member
  • Evaluator for the Ministry of Education of Singapore Panel EP5
  • Member of the AENEAS Scientific Council
  • Member of the University Council, University of Ilmenau
  • Jury member, National Research Prize in Physics, Spain
  • Member of the Scientific advisory board of Silicon Austria Lab