Three New Resarchers Join BCMaterials

The new year has brought BCMaterials the arrival of three new young scientists to our staff. They are the pre-doctoral researchers Karen Cano and Mikel Russo, along with the post-doctoral researcher Jules Marcone. They will contribute from different scientific backgrounds to materials science development for areas like active and smart materials, nanostructured materials and computational materials science.

Karen Cano

Karen obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Francisco José de Caldas District University (Bogotá, Colombia) in 2022. Two years later she earned an MSc in Industrial and Synthetic Chemistry from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Her master’s research was centered on the synthesis of sialic acid mimetics (fluorinated trisaccharides) using combined chemical and enzymatic strategies.

Her work at BCMaterials will focus on the development and study of new molecular materials capable of self-assembling in lipid membranes and enabling the transfer of electrons using light as a trigger, integrating these "wires" into model liposomes and bacteria to create light-driven biohybrid systems for the sustainable production of chemicals and fertilisers.

Jules Marcone

Dr. Marcone graduated with a Magistere in Molecular Physical-Chemistry (2022) from the Paris-Saclay University, in France, specializing in Inorganic, Physical, and Solid Chemistry. They then joined the Laboratory of Solid-State Physics in Orsay, France, for their PhD where they specialized in nanomaterial science. During their research, they investigated the synthesis and self-assembly of plasmonic nanoparticles, and their characterization, both individually and in assemblies, by Small Angle X-Ray Scattering.

After defending their PhD in November 2025, they join BCMaterials as a post-doctoral researcher to work on the assembly of nanoparticles by bubble printing, using femto-pulsed lasers to assemble nanoparticles and develop novel patterning techniques.

Mikel Russo

Mikel Russo holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). Throughout his mathematics studies, he has been particularly interested in the theoretical side of the discipline, especially Algebra. This interest led him to write his Bachelor’s Thesis on division algebras. Lately, he has focused his interests on applied mathematics and completed a Master’s in Mathematical Modeling, Statistics, and Computing, also at the University of the Basque Country. He is very interested in how mathematics can be applied in different fields such as physics, engineering or economics.

As a pre-doctoral researcher at BCMaterials, he will focus on developing AI-based models able to predict microscale multiphysics behaviour. This includes artificial data generation, computational programming, materials physics theoretical development and generating workflows.