José Ángel Martín Gago, new ICMM’s director: Jesús Ricote and Pilar Aranda are his new deputy directors

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Material Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM - CSIC) has a new director: José Ángel Martín Gago. On July 1st Gago was renowned as new ICMM’s director, and Jesús Ricote and Pilar Aranda are the new deputy directors. 

ICMM is the biggest research centre in Material Science at CSIC, and this has been, despite what can be thought, a disadvantage in last years: as there are almost 200 scientists working in more than 30 groups, there are a wide variety of topics that are been researched at the time, so it is very difficult to make a common politic inside the ICMM. That is the aim of this new managing team. 

Gago explains that they want to know all the groups, their works, their problems, and how they can help them with new politics in the new materials area. Another goal of this team is to be helpful: Ricote adds that they want the researchers to feel the ICMM help them in their work and it’s not only a bureaucratic institution. In fact, Gago says that they are going to create some commissions that are going to have some autonomy to take decisions. Coordination is also a key point, and Aranda says that they plan to improve it by organizing the research support services for all internal and external usage. 

But, if they are researchers with successful careers, why did they decide to manage the ICMM? They confess they did not think about it until the time arrived: “Someone has to do it”, admits Gago, who explains that he thinks it is better for the ICMM if the director is a researcher who knows the reality of other researchers. Besides, he is a well-known scientist, so he trusts he will be listened to by other institutions. That is the reason Aranda and Ricote joined him: “His candidature was the answer”, says Ricote. 

ICMM’s future

They list some of their main tasks: support research in all its aspects, promote internationalization, and the creation of a new scientific advisory committee. "We think that an expert vision from abroad can be of great help to increase our international visibility and define these center policies," Gago clarifies. The three also speak, and are closely related to this, of the improvement of communication and outreach of the institute. In fact, a new professional has been hired for this work: Ángela R. Bonachera.

The team's interest in communication and outreach is no coincidence, as they have been practicing it individually for years. "I like to understand how things work, and when I do, I want to explain them to others," says Ricote. Gago speaks in a similar way: "Science is a very important facet for me, as well as telling others about it to make them feel the same fascination that I experience". Aranda, for his part, practices the dissemination of science in another no less important way: teaching. Although she is far from her now, she has participated in postgraduate, doctorate, master's, specialization courses, etc.

New ICMM, new lifes

They have some stuff in common, and another one is, of course, the passion for science. Now, as a management team, they know this will not be their main work anymore (at least during their time in this position). Anyway, they talk about it with philosophy: “In the last years, many doctors were already dealing with the group's lines of research and now demand more independence in decision-making and it seems to me a good idea that they are the ones who are now aware of the day-to-day, and I go into the background", explains Gago. 

Ricote aims to continue with one eye on his research group, and in fact, still is managing his team. He is not afraid of work. Neither is Aranda, who recognizes she will change her way of doing things in science, but she wants to continue contributing to her investigation group. Nevertheless, she is motivated by her new job: "It means addressing other tasks that can contribute to the progress of research in a broader scope," she says.

Because, and it cannot be forgotten, the work of these researchers is essential for the progress of science. Aranda, who was one of the first researchers to work with hybrid organo-inorganic materials, explains: “Their possibilities continue to be endless and new ones continue to emerge, many of them linked to something as common as clay. " And she explains: "Although for some people clay seems simple and even not very relevant, I believe that it will once again have great relevance for humanity."

Ricote describes himself as "a scientist who tries to contribute knowledge about the internal structure of materials, which ultimately determines their behavior." Now he is in charge of an atomic force microscope that allows him to "explore the effects produced by the reduction in the size of crystals in ferroic materials", he explains, adding that all this is aimed at "proposing the best solutions to integrate them in micro and nanodevices.”

Gago, an all-rounder (among his passions we can mention writing, theater, mountains, motorcycles...), recognizes as one of his greatest achievements, and the one he is most proud of, his ability to "unite and get a large number of experimental researchers from different theoretical fields to work together with theoreticians, sharing projects and ideas". Gago works on a large variety of research topics, such as the synthesis of surfaces, low-dimensional materials, astrochemistry, the origin of life, or the design of new (bio)sensors.

"We have gotten into, and will continue to do so, in complex issues in which we were often not true specialists, but in which we participated with other researchers with the hope of contributing to those fields," adds the director. Perhaps ICMM's management is another one of those topics in which one enters with enthusiasm and then comes out triumphant. That, without a doubt, is the objective of this team.

-- Ángela R. Bonachera - ICMM Comunication--