López Sancho, María del Pilar

My main interest is the understanding of unconventional properties of materials. These properties, without explanation in conventional theories, demand the development of new ideas and formalisms. Currently I am working on the study of low dimensional materials and how size, edges and defects vary their properties, especially in graphene nanoribbons and their heterojunctions. I also study the effects of disorder and symmetries on topological insulators. I have always studied electronic properties of materials of great conceptual interest and technological potential as metals, metal-semiconductor interfaces, magnetic superlattices, strongly correlated systems, high-Tc superconductors, diluted magnetic semiconductors, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) or graphene. I have investigated the role of defects in graphene with special emphasis on the appearance of magnetic moments. We have explored the properties of transition metals dichalcogenides and the spin orbit coupling effects. My PhD education was in the field of experimental Surface Physics, gas-metal interaction, a hot topic at that time. The great development of surface spectroscopies made the interpretation of the data essential, so I began theoretical work. We studied the correlation effects on the surface-adsorbate bond which helped to understand the results obtained by different techniques.

Since 2002 I have been involved in social responsibility tasks as scientific dissemination, management and gender equality issues Designations by the Presidency of CSIC: Member of the Commission to elaborate the new Statute of CSIC in 2006; Member of the Women and Science Committee 1/05/2007-31/05/2008; Delegate President of the Women and Science Committee from 1/06/2008 to 28/02/2020. Member of the Equality Committee from 1/10/2011. CSIC Representative in the "Working Group on Gender and Diversity" de Science Europe, 10/02/2014 -1/03/2017. Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Program "El CSIC en la Escuela" from January 2012