Susagna Ricart and Arántzazu González at the XXX Chemistry Debate of the SCQ-IEC

The Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) hosted the XXX IEC Chemistry Debate “Connect the Materials Science with the young students”. Susagna Ricart and Arántzazu González took part in the event, which was held from 4 to 7 pm at the amazing “Sala Prat de la Riba”.

The event also included an awards ceremony for the students who won the prizes to the best secondary school Research Projects (12a edició dels Premis als Treballs de Recerca). Three of these students will come to ICMAB this summer as part of this award to work closely with three of our researchers and see the daily life of a scientist!

The event, organized by the Societat Catalana de Química, started with a short introduction by Carles Bo, the president of the SCQ, and then was followed by the two presentations of our researchers:

• «Àtoms, molècules… i materials» by Susagna Ricart Miró – Susagna, from the SUMAN group, explained which were the building blocks of the materials that we create at ICMAB: the atoms! And from there, she explained many of the functional advanced materials that we design and prepare, and some of their applications, such as carbon nanotubes for drug delivery, for example.
• «Kit de materials a l’aula (ICMAB)» by Arántzazu González Campo – Arántzazu,from the FunNanoSurf group, explained the activity “Un investigador a la teva aula”, in which volunteer researchers from ICMAB go to secondary school classes to explain how they became a scientist, and show some of the materials that we have here in our “materials kit”, such as gold nanoparticles, silica gel or superconducting tapes.

After the two talks, which were very well received by the audience, the two speakers answered some of the questions of the audience. Some of the teachers were very interested in the activity explained by Arántzazu. Moreover, the two researchers encouraged the students to study Chemistry, which is very much needed in Materials Science research. “Chemistry is everything” concluded Susagna. 

During the coffee break, we could see the posters of some of the Research Projects exposed, and after the pause, Fina Guitart, president of the 12th Edition of the Research Projects Awards, announced the centers which will host some of the students internships. ICMAB will host three students during July 2018. The event concluded with the presentation of the two first prizes of the Research Projects: one about the antibiotic effect of garlic, and the other one about air pollution and climate change.

Congratulations to all the participants, and winners! And thanks to the SCQ for organizing this event and for counting on us! http://otc-certified-store.com