We welcome to BCMaterials Oihane Jiménez and Asier Gómez, new administrative officer and new IT technical assistant. Both of them will work as interns. We hope you enjoy this period with us and that it will be beneficial for your professional career!

We would like to welcome Andrey Shibaev as a new post-doctoral researcher at our center. Dr. Shibaev obtained his PhD in polymer physics from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (Russia), then worked there at the Chair of polymer and crystal physics as a junior and senior researcher and became an associate professor in 2022, specializing in the self-assembly of complex polymer and surfactant systems and polymer gels.

Researchers from BCMaterials and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) collaborated with the University of Oregon and the EPFL School of Engineering in the successful transformation of a 3D printer into a low-cost, high-tech Melt Electrowriting (MEW) open source device. This new equipment, called MEWron, makes printing at high-resolutions much more affordable and customizable.

We want to give our warmest welcome to Timur Tropin, who joined BCMaterials as a post-doctoral researcher. Dr. Tropin has a long experience as a physicist working at the Group of Physics and Nanosystems (further – GRAINS group, specializing in neutron reflectometry for soft matter systems) that belongs to the Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics (FLNP) of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna, Russia. Dr.

BCMaterials researchers travelled to Chile and Argentina in late May with the aim of strengthening cooperation ties with research institutions in both countries. The visit included the Advanced Mining Technology Center (AMTC) of the University of Chile and the Institute of Chemistry and Drug Metabolism (IQUIMEFA) of the University of Buenos Aires.

A delegation from BCMaterials, made up of Qi Zhang, Ikerbasque Research Professor, and Senentxu Lanceros-Méndez, scientific director of our center, traveled to China to visit two of the most prominent academic and research centers in that country: of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and the International School of Materials Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology (WUT).

We welcome Mariana Ríos Naranjo as a new pre-doctoral researcher at BCMaterials. Ríos graduated in Physics from the National University of Colombia in Bogotá and also has a Master's Degree in Physics from the same university. She joined our center after working as a teacher in some Colombian universities, including the Konrad Lorenz University Foundation in the Colombian capital.

We want to congratulate Nagore Barroso, pre-doctoral researcher of BCMaterials, for becoming new doctor on 4th May. Nagore made a brilliant defense of her thesis entitled "A study of metal-organic framework sorption phenomena in solution".

It is our pleasure to see Nagore grating this great achievement and we want to underline the hard work she has been doing through these PhD years. Congratulations, Nagore!!

BCMaterials is pleased to welcome the prestigious scientist José Onuchic as a visiting researcher until next July. Onuchic is a professor of Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry and Biosciences at University of Rice and director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, both institutions located in the United States.

We welcome a new post-doctoral researcher at BCMaterials: Estibaliz Ruiz Bilbao. After graduating in Chemistry at the UPV/EHU, she completed a Master's in Polymers, Colorants and Fine Chemicals at the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). Later she completed her doctoral studies in Materials Science at the UPV / EHU.