Aurelio Mateo-Alonso researcher has obtained an ERC 'Consolidator Grant'

Aurelio Mateo-Alonso, the Ikerbasque Research Professor seconded to the UPV/EHU, has won the prestigious "Consolidator Grant" from the European Research Council (ERC) amounting to 2 million euros' worth of funding to develop the e-Sequence project over the next 5 years.

The European Research Council funds projects for prestigious researchers so that they can develop innovative, high-risk projects. With thousands of applications submitted every year and following an international evaluation in which scientific excellence is the only appraisal criteria, success rates are around 10-15%. The initiatives supported by the European Research Council enjoy huge prestige in the international scientific community.

The main aim of the e-Sequence project is to develop a new methodology for preparing graphene nanoribbons. One way of obtaining these structures in the shape of nanometric-sized strips is to crop graphene sheets. The impact of e-Sequence goes beyond the synthesis of graphene nanoribbons as these nanostructures are very promising when it comes to developing new technologies with applications in electronics, photonics, and energy conversion and storage.

The e-Sequence research project will be run at POLYMAT, a partner research centre of the UPV/EHU and member of the BERC network (Basque Excellence Research Centres).

Aurelio Mateo-Alonso is an Ikerbasque Research Professor seconded to the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country; he is the leader of POLYMAT's Molecular and Supramolecular Materials group and has an extensive research career behind him: he holds a degree in Organic Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Madrid and a PhD in Chemistry from Queen Mary College, University of London. Previously, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Trieste (Italy) and as group leader at the University of Freiburg (Germany).

His research work has received national and international recognition through various awards that include: the Young Researchers' Award from the University of Trieste (2007); the Eugen-Graetz Award from the University of Freiburg (2009); the Young Researchers' Award from the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (2011), and the Young Researchers' Award from the Nanocarbons Division of the American Electrochemical Society (2012).

Photo: UPV/EHU