The researcher from the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS) Juan Ramón Sánchez Valencia is the winner of the 2014 Royal Seville Academy of Sciences Award. This award is open to Spanish researchers born after December 31, 1979, graduated from the Universities of Seville or who have carried out a significant part of their work in research centers in the province of Seville.

The jury has decided to reward Juan Ramón’s scientific merits by highlighting his important contributions to the development of photonic sensors (for example, oxygen or nitrogen dioxide) and portable X-ray sources based on carbon nanotubes, as well as his work related to the manufacture of carbon nanotubes with atomic precision.

Juan Ramón Sánchez Valencia has a degree in Physics from the University of Granada (2005) and a degree in Materials Engineering and a PhD (2010) from the University of Seville. Much of his research career has been developed at the ICMS, part of the Isla de la Cartuja scientific research centre (cicCartuja). His activity as a researcher focuses on the study of functional nanomaterials with applications in photonics, sensors and electronics. These are materials of high technical interest that are prepared using vacuum laboratory techniques and plasma processing, which can also be developed on an industrial scale, and which are compatible with current methods of manufacturing microelectronic devices.

On the other hand, the Royal Seville Academy of Sciences, with the sponsorship of the Royal Cavalry of Seville Foundation, has also awarded the annual Royal Cavalry of Seville prizes, which, in this edition, have been for the following doctors:

Alejandro Martín-Montalvo, belonging to the Andalusian Centre for Molecular Biology and Regenerative Medicine, for his outstanding contributions to the knowledge of oxidative stress, insulin resistance and ageing, as well as the slowing of the latter by the action of different compounds.

Eugenio Zapata Solvas, researcher at the Institute of Materials Science of Seville, part of cicCartuja, for his studies of the mechanical and thermal properties of nanostructured ceramic compounds and of “composites” with a ceramic matrix.

These awards, worth 6,000 euros, will be presented on May 27 at 7 p.m. at the headquarters of the Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla.