Author: jaume

We had the pleasure to present the main outcomes of the ELECTRON4WATER project, and objectives for the upcoming ERC PoC GRAPHEC project during the visit of the directors of the scientific and technological advice offices in the EU parlaments. The visit of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment (EPTA) board and Advisory Council of the Catalan Parliament on Science and Technology (CAPCIT) led to very productiev discussion on the issues related to water scarcity. We took the opportunity to emphasize the importance of the technology development for resolving the presence of PFAS in our environment!

Anna Segues won the first place in the competition organized by the University of Girona and Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI). Anna will be representing the University of Girona at the final competition of the Catalan universities in Lleida in June, 2023. Big congrats to Anna!

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GRAPHEC was selected to participate in the Collider Venture Builder call promoted by the Barcelona Mobile World Capital Foundation. The goal of the program is to connect scientific talent with entrepreneurial talent to create highly innovative scientific-based spinoffs, and help transform the results of scientific research into marketable products or services.  We are looking forward to this exciting journey and hopefully seeing our technology being applied in the “real world”.

 

GRAPHEC was selected as a semi finalist of the Startups for Semiconductor Sustainability call for 2023! We are very much looking forward to tthe opportunity to pitch our technology to the key stakeholders of the semiconductor industry.

https://www.semi.org/en/blogs/technology-and-trends/startups-for-semiconductor-sustainability-year-2-finalists-announced

Prof Jelena Radjenovic was awarded an ERC Proof of Concept grant GRAPHEC to develop an upscaled prototype system for electrochemical degradation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in complex and brackish wastewater. This will enable us to gain insight into long-term performance of the graphene sponge electrodes developed in the ELECTRON4WATER project and also to exploit their full potential by developing reactors with optimized hydrodynamics. We are very excited for this opportunity 🙂

https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/Proof-of-Concept-Grants-2022

Prof Jelena Radjenovic is soon finishing her sabbatical stay at University of California (UC) at Berkeley. In these three months, Jelena had the opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers from UC Berkeley as well as Stanford University, and to showcase the research conducted in her group at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) in Girona, Spain. We now have several new and exciting collaborations! Big thanks to Prof David Sedlak, the best host one could hope for, as well as Assoc Prof Baoxia Mi, both from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Thank you also to Prof William Mitch and Assist Prof William Tarpeh for hosting me at Stanford University. We live behind our group member, Dr Natalia Sergienko, who has just initiated her postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof David Sedlak at UC Berkeley. We are proud of Natalia and have no doubt that her postdoctoral stay will be successful 🙂

 

PhD student Natalia Ormeño-Cano and postdoc fellow Dr Elisabeth Cuervo Lumbaque participated in the Pint of Science Girona 2022. They both had a lot of fun explaining their research conducted within the ELECTRON4WATER project with pint(s) of beer!

 

Natalia Ormeño has won third place in the competition organized by the University of Girona and Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI). We are very happy and proud!

Generalitat, the Government of Catalonia and Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI) have awarded Dr. Jelena Radjenović with the National Research Award for Young Talent 2021. The National Research Awards recognize and reflect the different facets of both research activity and scientific communication and dissemination initiatives, scientific patronage and public and private cooperation in R&D projects in Catalonia.  The national prize for Research in the Young Talent category aims to stimulate and recognize the efforts of young researchers in the Catalan research and innovation system who have contributed during their professional career to the advancement of a scientific discipline in any of its fields. Likewise, other aspects such as technology transfer and the social impact of their research will be assessed. In the case of Dr. Jelena Radjenović, the award is given to her for her work on the ELECTRON4WATER project for the development of low-cost graphene sponge nanostructured electrodes for water treatment.

 

Professor Jelena Radjenovic was selected as one of 20 researchers in Spain by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to participate in the working meeting “Encounter with Science: Spanish research in the 21st Century”, that took place with Their Majesties the Kings. In the Palace of El Pardo, King Felipe and Queen Letizia presided over the meeting focused on the present and future of science in Spain, in which scientists have contributed their vision in relation to the situation and the future of science in Spain. The topics of discussion on this occasion were: “Research in Spain in the XXI century: Emerging areas, multi and trans disciplinary”, “Challenges of the Spanish science system”, “What university do we want in Spain in 2030?” and “The transfer of knowledge and its impact on the Spanish economy and society”. During the meeting the scientists and researchers were accompanied by the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque; the Secretary of State for Universities, Research, Development and Innovation, Ángeles Heras; the president of the Spanish National Research Council https://www.europapress.es/ciencia/noticia-reyes-reunen-20-cientificos-espanoles-mas-exito-pardo-20190321180942.html(CSIC), Rosa María Menéndez; and the president of the National Heritage Board of Directors, Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán.