María Blecua is a researcher and environmental laboratory scientist at Fundación CIRCE. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Science from Alcalá de Henares University (Madrid, Spain) after an exchange at the University of Tübingen (Germany) in 2013. Later, she obtained a Master’s degree in Renewable Energies from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) in 2015 while working at Exide Technologies, one of the main international manufacturers of lead acid batteries. She also obtained an international Ph.D. in Nanomaterials and Advanced Materials from the Autonomous University Madrid (Spain), which focused on lead acid batteries for micro-hybrid electrical vehicles. As part of her Ph.D., she spent more than 6 months working in the R&D department of Exide Technologies located in Büdingen (Germany). She has been involved in the manufacturing processes of lead acid batteries for automotive and industrial applications as an R&D Engineer, as well as in the research field. She investigates the influence of different carbon materials on the performance of the negative plate for these batteries, as part of public research projects in collaboration with the private sector. She has experience in the development and optimization of pilot plants and the scale-up of prototypes to commercial models.
