Elena Navarrete-Astorga

Biography

From 2008 I am working within FQM-192 PAIDI research team (Materials and Surface Laboratory) from Andalusia (Spain). From 2010 I am the responsible of magnetron sputtering facilities of University of Malaga. After my MSc in Materials (2010), I received my PhD (2015) in Physics from University of Malaga. I was awarded with a FPI pre-doctoral fellowship supported by MINECO (Spain). This fellowship supported me financially to do a PhD and to carry out scientific stays at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (Germany) and Laurence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), apart from a short stay in AJA International facilities to gain more knowledge about sputtering systems (Boston, USA). During this period, I co-supervised four final grade projects. From 2015 to 2019 I received founds through a research project to do my postoc research in Physics Applied I Department from University of Malaga, studying energy storage devices, specially supercapacitors for transparent electronics, including their preparation and characterization. From 2019 to 2020 I was working as substitute teaching tutor in Physics Applied I Department from University of Malaga. From 2020 to 2022 I was the principal investigator of a project related to transparent microsupercapacitors, which brought me the opportunity to lead a team. In 2021 I obtained certification from ANECA (Spain) as Associate Professor in Physics (Professor Titular de Universidad).
I am a scientist with a materials science background, specialized in supercapacitors as energy storage devices. According to teaching, from 2020 I am the main teacher of several courses of Engineering and Science grades of University of Malaga. I have participated in multiple commission of trust and given various scientific talks.
Since September 2022, I am a permanent teacher (Associate Professor) at University of Malaga, in Physics Applied I Department. My research focuses on preparation and characterization of thin films for material functionalization, and specially for energy storage devices as supercapacitors, making them with nano and microstructural size.
I have a broad experience in the preparation of materials, specifically thin films, using techniques such as magnetron sputtering, spray pyrolysis, electrodeposition or dip coating. Likewise, I master materials characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, thermal analysis and impedance spectroscopy, in addition to the electrochemical characterization of electrodes and energy storage devices.