María López Escalante Cruz

My professional career began studying Chemical Engineering (5 years) at the University of Málaga (UMA) and the completion of my PhD degree within the group “Materials and Surfaces Laboratory” which is composed by members of the Chemical Engineering and Applied Physics departments both from the UMA. During this period of time I enjoyed a CSIC- MECD predoctoral grant for “Development of Doctoral Theses for Associated Units Universities-CSIC”, 2002 call. I defended the thesis in 2006 and during this time I published 7 articles in indexed journals (4 Q1), attended 2 international workshops, 10 congresses, mode 20 congress contributions (10 attendees) and participated in 4 projects (3 nationals and 1 integrated action Spanish-French). I also stayed at the Sincrotron Elettra (Trieste, Italy) and taught 10 teaching credits. In May 2007, I obtained the Assitant Doctor accreditation.

In 2007 I joined the Isofoton R&D Centre (a centre dedicated to the photovoltaic solar devices technological development and production) until its closure in January 2014 (7 years). During this stay I collaborated in projects for the solar device measurement system developments at laboratory and industrial scale; improvement in commercial devices efficiency and reliability; incorporation of new production materials and also in complete technological changes. I established a wide network of collaborators: national public institutions (CIEMAT, Universidad del País Vasco and UMA), international (Fraunhofer ISE and TÜV), and private companies such as measurement equipment designers for photovoltaic cells (h.a.l.m), encapsulating materials (SKC, dnp-Solar, Wacker Chemie, Dow Chemical and DuPont) or silicones for photovoltaic applications (Dow Corning), interconnection ribbons (Alpha-PV ribbons). During this stage I participated in numerous projects, but due to the sudden disappearance of Isofoton, together with the confidentiality of the R&D work makes everything related to them difficult or impossible to justify. Even so, I have been able to certify 9 of the projects mentioned, some of the management tasks carried out, a specialization course, 4 communications to congresses (2 attendees). The current expiration of the confidentiality agreements, together with the work carried out in the UMA is allowing me the scientific dissemination of the work carried out: publication of 7 works (all Q1), 5 contributions to congresses (2 of them with anonymous evaluation by peers).

In 2014, I joined UMA as “Profesor Asociado” of the Department of Chemical Engineering. With this figure I have combined teaching activities with research in solar energy in the Laboratory of Materials and Surfaces. I have joined the Nanotechnology Unit of the UMA. I collaborate with the Solar Energy Institute of the UPM (one article, Q1); with two foreign research groups: one from the Polytechnic University of Wroclaw (Poland), specialized in Semiconductor Materials Engineering III-V (one article, Q1); another from the Vrije University, Amsterdam (Holland), which works on organic solar cells, where I stayed for 1 month.

In 2021 I did the official exam and currently I work as Associate Professor at Chemical Engineering Department.

General quality indicators of scientific production

2/2 tramos autonómicos de investigación

1 tramo autonómico de gestión

2 sexenios de investigación

Total articles in JCR =33 (4 articles D1 and 17 Q1)

Citations = Scopus h=12 (cited 518)