Maria Ibáñez Sabaté is a Spanish materials scientist and Professor at the

Institute of Science and Technology Austria The Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) is an international research institute in natural and formal sciences, located in Maria Gugging, Klosterneuburg, 20 km northwest of the Austrian capital of Vienna. It was established an ...

. Her research considers functional

nanomaterials Nanomaterials describe, in principle, chemical substances or materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 100 nm (the usual definition of nanoscale). Nanomaterials research takes a materials science ...

for next generation technologies. She was awarded the

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

Ružička Prize in 2017.

Early life and education

Ibáñez studied physics at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

. She remained there for her doctoral research, where she developed synthesis strategies for colloidal

nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...

s. Her research originally considered materials for photovoltaics, but she became increasingly interested in thermoelectric materials. During her doctoral research she completed placements at the

French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and sec ...

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and Northwestern. Her doctoral research was awarded the Extraordinary Award, the

's highest accolade. After earning her doctorate she joined

, where she worked with

Maksym Kovalenko Maksym V. Kovalenko (born 1982) is a full professor of inorganic chemistry and the head of the Functional Inorganic Materials group at ETH Zurich. A part of the research activities of the group are conducted at Empa (Dübendorf). He is working i ...

Research and career

In 2017 Ibáñez was awarded the Ružička Prize for her work on developing new thermoelectric materials. She joined the

as an assistant professor in 2018. She was promoted to the Verbund Professor for Energy Sciences in 2022. Her research considers nanocrystals that can be used as building blocks to engineer metamaterials. She is interested in the development of solution processed thermoelectric materials with high

Seebeck coefficient The Seebeck coefficient (also known as thermopower, thermoelectric power, and thermoelectric sensitivity) of a material is a measure of the magnitude of an induced thermoelectric voltage in response to a temperature difference across that material ...

s, electrical conductivities and thermal conductivities.

Select publications

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Personal life

Ibáñez is married with two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibanez, Maria Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women materials scientists and engineers Materials scientists and engineers 21st-century Spanish scientists 21st-century Spanish women scientists University of Barcelona alumni