Two-dimensional (2D) materials for environmental and biomedical applications, optoelectronic devices, organic solar cells, molecular nanomotors and other advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology will be presented and discussed on 3 and 4 June at the Joan Plaça Auditorium of the University of Valencia’s Botanical Garden, as part of the ICMol’s annual Scientific Conference – a dissemination initiative that this centre of research excellence has hosted since its foundation in the year 2000.

This year’s edition, coinciding with the Institute’s 25th anniversary, will include seven scientific talks, aimed at a broad audience, delivered by leading experts in fields related to molecular nanoscience.

The programme has been extended compared to previous years – hence its extension into the afternoon of the preceding day – and will feature the participation of two Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry, Jean-Marie Lehn and Jean-Pierre Sauvage, both frequent contributors to UV events due to their longstanding scientific collaboration with ICMol.

Other featured speakers include Pablo Jarillo, a prominent physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), renowned for his research into graphene and related materials; Petra Rudolf, who served as president of the European Physical Society until 2024 and continues to contribute pioneering work on the environmental and medical applications of 2D materials; chemist Daniel Maspoch, recipient of the Rei Jaume I Award for New Technologies for his ability to balance basic and applied research in the field of porous materials; Elvira Fortunato, a distinguished researcher in sustainable electronics, holder of two ERC Advanced Grants and former Minister of Science and Technology of Portugal; and Jean-Luc Brédas, one of the most highly regarded theoretical physicists in the field of optoelectronic devices such as solar cells and OLEDs.

As in previous years, the director of ICMol, Eugenio Coronado, will provide a report on the current state of the research centre, which has once again been recognised – for the third consecutive time – by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities as a María de Maeztu Centre of Excellence.

The Scientific Conference will be formally opened at 9 a.m. on Wednesday 4 June by the rector of the University of Valencia, María Vicenta Mestre. She will be joined by the minister of Science, Technology and Universities, Diana Morant; the regional secretary for Universities, María Esther Gómez; the executive president of the Rei Jaume I Awards Foundation, Javier Quesada; and the director of ICMol, Eugenio Coronado. Also in attendance will be Luis Viña, director of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics (RSEF), and María Ángeles Herranz, president of the Specialised Group in Nanoscience and Molecular Materials of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), representing the institution.

Full programme available