Prof. Lechuga of ICN2, a BIST centre, has received the Spanish “Juan de la Cierva” National Research Award for the impact of her research career on technology transfer.
The “Juan de la Cierva” award was launched in 2001 by the Spanish Government to acknowledge the impact of Spanish research on technology transfer. This year’s award was announced last week by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN). Prof. Laura M. Lechuga Gómez is the first woman to be awarded this recognition, breaking a new wall for female researchers.
Prof. Lechuga is Group Leader at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2, a BIST centre), where she leads the NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group. She is also Full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Group Leader of the Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBER-BBN). She received her PhD in Chemistry from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 1992.
The principal focus of her research is the development of novel nanobiosensor devices based on nanoplasmonics and silicon-based photonics for point-of-care diagnostics. She has been at the forefront of photonic biosensor research for more than eighteen years, making key contributions and opening new horizons in this technological field. She has published over 270 articles, book chapters, and proceedings, has eight families of patents, and has presented her work worldwide in more than 360 invited talks. She has also co-founded two spin-off companies.
Prof. Lechuga has received several prizes and recognitions throughout her career, including the Prize of Physics, Innovation and Technology from the Spanish Royal Society of Physics and BBVA Foundation in 2016, the 2020 Ada Byron Award from the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain), and the 2020 Rei Jaume I New Technologies Award, conferred by the Valencian Government and the Foundation Premios Rei Jaume I. She has also been a Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) since 2014.
Currently, she is the coordinator of one of the first EU urgent projects for COVID-19 diagnostics (CoNVaT) and belongs to the Expert Multidisciplinary Scientific Group advising the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Spanish Government in COVID-19 science.
The “Juan de la Cierva” Technology Transference National Research Award means a new impulse to the research she leads at the BIST centre ICN2, CSIC, and CIBER-BBN, together with a team devoted to designing innovative nanobiosensors and diagnostic technologies.
More information can be found on the ICN2 website.