Coro Echeverria

Biography

Coro Echeverría received her M.S. degree in 2004 from University of the Basque Country (EHU), San Sebastian, Spain. She did her final year project at University of Stratchclyde (Glasgow, UK) (Erasmus grant) where she did her first research study on polyurethane hydrogels reinforced with modified clay. (2003-2004). Then, she worked in the rheology laboratory at Polymat Institute (2005-2006), in the framework of a European project, on the determination of the characteristic rheological parameters of polymers during injection molding processes and their use in simulation calculations. She completed her Ph.D. degree in 2011 at the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP-CSIC) in the area of smart hybrid polymeric gels (Cum Laude). During her Ph.D. degree period, she also performed a 4-month stage in Prof. Nicholas Peppas lab at the University of Texas where she learnt cutting edge methodologies and techniques in this field. Immediately after the achievement of her PhD degree, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher at ICTP-CSIC (2011) on the preparation of fibers and gels based on metallo-organic polymers with magnetic susceptibility and with potential applications as memory storage systems. Posterior, she worked at the Spin-Off Company; Suntec Solar S.L. (2012). During this period, she had the first contact with market, financial and, in summary, entrepreneurship related concepts. After this period, she performed a second postdoctoral period of 4 years and 8 months at Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Portugal (2013-2017), after being awarded with FCT-Postdoc Fellow from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology with the project “Cellulose in Motion”. The two main challenges of the project were: the development of cellulosic liquid crystal actuator-Soft Motor, and the understanding of its complex rheology. She acquired knowledge in a new discipline: natural liquid crystal polymers. She extended her experience on stimuli responsive systems to actuators and become expert on Rheo-NMR. She also performed teaching activities. During that period, she could also start a new research line, “Multifunctional stimuli-responsive polymer composites”, derived from the supervision of 5 MSc students. This new line served as the starting point for the Portuguese granted project “Dual-stimuli Responsive nanofibrous Magnetic Membranes” where she participates. In november 2021, she become Tenured Scientist, at ICTP-CSIC. Her research interest is centered on the development of sustainable polymers for advanced applications with antimicrobial activity. In a long term, her research objective is twofold: to minimize the impact of plastics through circular economy of plastics as proposed by EU for 2030, and to contribute with a solution for the increasing problem of bacteria resistance against antibiotics. In a short term period, she aims the development of biodegradable multifunctional polymeric systems (antimicrobial, biocompatible and stimuli responsive), based on polymers from renewable sources for applications in the area of health. She is member of the Interdisciplinary Platform for Sustainable Plastics towards a Circular Economy, SusPlast (Plataforma Interdisciplinar de Plásticos Sostenibles para una Economía Circular). She is supervising a PhD thesis on the development of biobased coatings with antimicrobial activity.