Aurora Jiménez, Maya Allard, José Miguel Lendínez, Wenjia Zhang and Sofía Hernanz, winners of Youmat 2026

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The Madrid Institute of Materials Science has held the third edition of the Seminar for Young Materials Researchers (Youmat26), an event designed to encourage communication and interaction among PhD students  who are starting research in the area of Materials Science, as well as to create a space in which these young people can discuss the results of their work with senior staff. 

Youmat featured talks, flash talks and poster sessions, as well as networking opportunities to gain a better understanding of the work being carried out across the various areas covered by the ICMM’s research.  

After two exciting days, the jury selected this year’s winners for the best talks: Aurora Jiménez, Maya Allard and José Miguel Lendínez. The prize for the best ‘flash’ talk went to Wenjia Zhang, and the prize for the best poster went to Sofía Hernanz.

In the ‘Materials for Health’ session, Aurora Jiménez, from the ESISNA group, spoke to us about ‘Addressing Key Challenges in Graphene FET Biosensors: Automated Data Analysis and Attomolar Detection’

Meanwhile, Maya Allard (Nanostructured Hybrid, Biohybrid and Porous Materials Group) spoke in the ‘Materials for Sustainability’ section, presenting the talk ‘Study of 3D printing and plasticisation on the piezoelectricity of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)’.

In 'Materials for Digital Information' section, José Miguel Lendínez (Multiscale Materials Modelling) presented a paper entitled 'Universal Theory of Temperature-Dependent Domain-Wall Widths in Uniaxial Heisenberg Magnets'.

In the flash presentations session, Wenjia Zhang (Bioinspired Materials) spoke to us about 'In Situ Raman Analysis of Aqueous Iron-Ion Batteries: From Electrolyte to Cathode'.

And the best poster award went to Sofía Hernanz, PhD student at Photonic Crystals group, for her poster entitled ‘Organic metamaterials for light control at the nanoscale’.

The event included an informal round-table discussion where young researchers were able to discuss their concerns about the future with recent PhD graduates from various programmes, such as Rafael Luque, Sara Núñez and María Salvador.