Laura Lechuga

Prof. Laura M. Lechuga (female) is Full Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Head of the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona (Spain) and at the Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBER-BBN). She received her PhD in Chemistry from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 1992. She has been Adjunct Professor at The Artic University of Norway (2012-2016) and Distinguished Visiting professor at University of Campinas (Brazil) (2013-2017). The principal focus of her research is the development of novel nanobiosensor devices based on nanoplasmonics and silicon-based photonics principles, including surface biofunctionalization, microfluidics for automatic fluid delivery and complete lab-on-a-chip integration for point-of-care devices. The application of the nanobiosensor devices in a wide range of challenging clinical and environmental applications is one of her main objectives. Her research activities range from basic research to the demonstration of working sensing platforms, as well as their technological transfer to industry. She has been at the forefront at worldwide level in the field of photonic biosensors, pioneering devices as the bimodal waveguide interferometric device, the optonanomechanical sensor, or the magnetoplasmonic biosensor, among others. She has published over 250 articles, book chapters and proceedings, has 8 families of patents, and has presented her work in more than 300 invited talks. She has co-founded two spin-offs companies. She is Associate Editor of the J. Optics and Laser Technology (Elsevier) and Analyst (RSC). She belongs to the Scientific Advisory Board of several high level national and international Centres and have participated is numerous high-level evaluation panels worldwide, as ERC or SNF panels. She has received several prizes and recognitions as the Prize of Physics, Innovation and Technology from the Spanish Royal Society of Physics and BBVA Foundation in 2016 and Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA) since 2014.