Paloma Fernández graduated in Materials Physics in 1985 at University Complutense. She got her Ph.D. degree in April 1989. In 1990, she stayed at Technische Universität in Berlin as a Post-Doc Researcher. After the Post-Doc period, she obtained a tenure at the Department of Materials Physics in the Faculty of Physics of the University Complutense in Madrid, where she became a Full Professor in 2007. Since February 2006, she has been a President of the Spanish Society of Materials, and in this role has participated in FEMS GA since 2007. In 2009, she acted as Co-chair for EUROMAT, held in Glasgow. She has been Chair of the Managing Committee and Member of the Scientific Committee for the last EUROMAT 2013 held in Seville. Besides her responsibilities as President of SOCIEMAT, she has been an Academic Management Responsible (deputy director) of the Department of Materials Physics at the Faculty of Physics, Complutense University (1993-2010); a Member of the Academic Advisory Committee in the Faculty of Physics, Complutense University (1998-2010); a Member of Faculty Board in the Faculty of Physics, Complutense University (2007-2010); a Responsible for Physics and Chemistry Speciality in the Master for Secondary and High School Teachers formation at Complutense University (since 2011) and a Member of Advisory Committee for the Project ENCIENDE (Promotion of Science at Schools) from Confederation of Spanish Scientific Societies (COSCE).
Belén Sotillo received her Ph.D. degree in Physics in 2014 from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain. She conducted a three-year postdoctoral stay at the Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie di Milano and at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, from 2015 to 2018. From 2018 to 2022, she returned as a postdoctoral researcher to UCM after obtaining a fellowship from Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) to attract research talent. Currently, she is an associate professor in the Department of Materials Physics at UCM. She has authored or co-authored over 50 articles published in international journals. Her work focuses on the characterization of various materials, from semiconductors to femtosecond-laser fabricated devices, to optimize their properties.
