Ahmad Sousaraei did his PhD at IMDEA Nanociencia under the supervision of Dr. Juan Cabanillas, at the Group of Organic Photophysics and Photonics. He defended his work successfully on Nov. 16^th, 2020 at IMDEA Nanociencia. The title of his thesis dissertation is "Photophysical Properties of Luminescent Metal-Organic Frameworks for Gas Sensing".

• How did you hear about the institute IMDEA Nanociencia? Tell us more about the beginning of the story…

After completing my MSc. in field of dye-sensitized solar cells and organic light emitting diodes, leading to some great papers, I decided to continue my career, overseas. I was looking for an interdisciplinary institute to promote my knowledge in science and contribute to desirable international collaborations. Fortunately, I found IMDEA Nanociencia an appropriate institute that has a lot of fascinating projects and young researchers with excellent CV in their research areas. It was difficult to select one group among others to apply but at the end I applied for the group of prof. Juan Cabanillas Gonzalez that was closest to my background and could shape better my future career.

• How was the working environment at IMDEA Nanociencia? What was your most positive experience at this place?

To be honest, I am really satisfied with everything at IMDEA Nanociencia. All the lab technicians were helpful and friendly and the working environment was great with good accessibility to all the required equipment. I could nicely communicate with all the staff, researchers, administrative, technicians and students for any assistance and scientific discussions. In my point of view, those are the most positive experiences I found.

• What is your next stage? Tell us more about your career expectations now.

During my PhD at IMDEA Nanoscience, I could achieve many valuable experiences in the fields of coordination chemistry, materials chemistry, photonics, laser, sensors, etc. I am really eager to be in science and achieve more experiences as a postdoc researcher and build my research group one day and transfer my experiences and knowledge to other MSc. and PhD students, hopefully.

Chen Sun did her PhD at IMDEA Nanociencia under the supervision of Dr. Juan Cabanillas, at the Group of Organic Photophysics and Photonics. She defended her work successfully on Nov. 11^th, 2020 at Complutense University of Madrid. The title of her thesis is "Optical and Morphology Properties of Supramolecularly Controlled Conjugated Polymers".

• How did you hear about the institute IMDEA Nanociencia? Tell us more about the beginning of the story…

I heard about IMDEA Nanociencia during the last year of my master in China. At that time, I was writing up my master thesis and found that I would like to go deeper photophysical study of organic semiconductors, instead of just synthesising new materials. I was very interested in exciton dynamics in real time and wanted to explore “what’s really going on in the thin films”. One of my former professors is collaborating with my PhD supervisor, Juan Cabanillas González, and told me that IMDEA Nanociencia is a quite good institute where equipped with advanced fs-transient absorption spectroscopy and so on. After the interview with Juan Cabanillas and application for the PhD funding, I decided to go IMDEA Nanociencia for my PhD.

• How was the working environment at IMDEA Nanociencia? What was your most positive experience at this place?

Well, as I expected before, the working environment at IMDEA Nanociencia is very nice. We have very advanced techniques here and quite brilliant researchers. The most positive experience here is that all the researchers are very open and willing to help the PhD students in the institute, even though you are nor under their direct supervision.

• What is your next stage? Tell us more about your career expectations now.

I already moved to Lund University, Sweden, as a postdoc to continue my research.

Ana Sánchez-Grande defended her doctoral thesis "Design and characterization of functional nanomaterials on surfaces" on Oct. 21^st, 2020. Her PhD was supervised by Prof. David Écija and realised on the Nanoarchitectonics on Surfaces Group at IMDEA Nanociencia.

• How did you hear about the institute IMDEA Nanociencia? Tell us more about the beginning of the story…

I heard about IMDEA during my master thesis at Complutense University of Madrid. Then, I found an offer in “Madri+d” for a PhD position at IMDEA Nanociencia, focused on the study of novel materials by means of scanning probe microscopy, which was in my main field of interest. I applied for the position and that is how I met my supervisor David Écija and started my PhD at IMDEA.

• How was the working environment at IMDEA Nanociencia? What was your most positive experience at this place?

The working environment at IMDEA is very nice, I would say that is the most positive experience during my PhD. I have met brilliant people who have trained me and I have spent really good times with my colleagues.

• What is your next stage? Tell us more about your career expectations now.

I will move soon to Prague for a postdoc position at the Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences.

This year 2020 (by 23.10) a total of 8 PhD students at IMDEA Nanociencia have defended their theses. We started the year with two, entitled "Novel functionalization methods of 1D and 2D materials and their applications" by Mariano Vera and "The applications of CVD grown graphene in surface-enhanced Raman scattering and Förster resonance energy transfer" by Yansheng Liu and directed by Prof. Emilio M. Pérez and Prof. Feng Luo, respectively.

Despite the pandemic situation, IMDEA Nanociencia researchers managed to thrive. After summer 2020, 6 PhD students defended successfully, either with masks on and social distance or either via telematic means. We assisted to the defenses of Julia Villalva, Adrián del Valle, Estefanía Fernández, Sofía Mena, Kateryna Lemishko and Ana Sánchez-Grande.

Julia Villalva's thesis, directed by Prof. Emilio M. Pérez, studied "Chemistry of nanomaterials inside out; mechanically interlocked, endohedral and covalent derivatives of SWNTs and 2D materials". Another thesis directed by Prof. Pérez, "Molecular machines and materials based on mechanically interlocked carbon nanotubes", was defended by Sofía Mena this September. The thesis of Kateryna Lemishko, directed by Prof. Borja Ibarra and in collaboration with Prof. Pérez's group, studied "Mechano-chemistry and dynamics of biological and synthetic systems". Adrián del Valle defended his multidisciplinary thesis "Simultaneous fluorescence and atomic force microscopy to study mechanically-induced bacterial death in real time", directed by Prof. Cristina Flors. "Novel switchable hybrid materials for applications as sensors at the molecular level" is the title of Estefanía Fernández's thesis, first PhD graduate from Prof. José Sánchez-Costa's group. And the last one, "Design and characterization of functional nanomaterials on surfaces" by Ana Sánchez-Grande and directed by Prof. David Écija.

From IMDEA Nanociencia, we congratulate them and wish the best for their future. We thank also the professors forming the PhD committees for their dedication and time.