PROGRAM

IMDEA ENERGY | Advanced Porous Materials Unit, Spain

Dr. Patricia Horcajada, head of the Porous Materials Unit at IMDEA Energy, has been recognized at the University of Alcalá’s “Doctor of Alcalá” 2023 Research Excellence Awards in the category of Young Researcher in Experimental Sciences. The award considers the excellence of the scientific contributions, the impact of the same, the leadership capacity, as well as the balance and quality of the research career.Horcajada has a multidisciplinary scientific background. With a degree in Pharmacy (2001) and a PhD in Materials Science (2005) from the Complutense University of Madrid, in 2005 she joined the Institut Lavoisier (France), first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as a CNRS researcher in 2007.

Since 2016, Patricia is Senior Researcher and Head of the Advanced Porous Materials Unit at IMDEA Energia. Her research activity focuses on the development of new multifunctional materials and their application in areas such as energy, environment or health.

She has been awarded several recognitions, such as the Young Female Talent RAC 2022, Young Researchers Leading Groups RSEQ 2020, Leonardo award 2017 or the Research Award of the Community of Madrid Miguel Catalán 2016. In addition, she is among the top 2% of researchers in the world according to the ranking prepared by Stanford University.

University of California Berkeley, Dpt. EECS, Berkeley, USA

Boubacar Kante is the inaugural Chenming Hu endowed Chaired Professor at UC Berkeley. His multidisciplinary research interests are in the areas of wave-matter interaction from microwave to optics and related fields such as antennas, nanophotonics, novel materials, and quantum optics. Boubacar Kanté is best known for his invention of scale-invariant lasers named Berkeley Surface Emitting Lasers (BerkSELs) that overcome a six-decade long challenge in wave-physics on how to increase the size of a lasing cavity while maintaining it single mode. He proposed and demonstrated the world first topological laser based on the quantum Hall effect for light, a demonstration selected as one of the top 10 discoveries by Physics World in 2017. He demonstrated the world first bound state in continuum (BIC) laser, where he highlighted the unique scaling of BIC cavities for enabling compact and efficient light sources. He also demonstrated the first single-mode valley-Hall topological laser. His group hold the world record for plasmonic nanosensing (immuno-assay nanosensing) using a scheme he proposed for the implementation of singularities of open systems known as exceptional points. He also holds the world record for the bandwidth and efficiency of planar structured lenses, a structure he named “the Fishnet-Achromatic-Metalens (FAM)”.
Prof. Kanté demonstrated the first non-magnetic metamaterial invisibility cloak. He introduced the notion of symmetry/parity of ring resonators, an idea used to prove that closed rings, previously believed incapable of producing artificial magnetism, can make ultra-broadband negative index in metamaterials.
Boubacar Kanté won the 2024 Bakar prize, he is a 2021 Bakar Fellow and a 2020 Moore Inventor Fellow. He is a senior member of IEEE and Optica (formerly OSA). He received the 2017 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, the 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award, The best undergraduate teacher award from UC San Diego Jacob School of Engineering in 2017, the 2015 Hellman Fellowship, the Richelieu Prize in Sciences from the Chancellery of Paris Universities for the best Ph.D in France in Engineering, Material Science, Physics, Chemistry, Technology in 2010, the Young Scientist Award from the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in Chicago in 2007, the Fellowship for excellence from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2003 for his undergraduate studies, a Research Fellowship from the French Research Ministry for his Ph.D studies.