Research News

esearchers of IONHE group have recently published results of the PhD thesis of Roger Curcoll, supervised by Claudia Grossi and Arturo Vargas, within the Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics journal on the: 'Estimation of seasonal methane fluxes over a Mediterranean rice paddy area using the Radon Tracer Method (RTM)'

Ramon G. F. Dornelas defended his thesis, co-advised by Jose Eduardo García and José de los Santos Guerra, on July 18th on the Campus Nord. Entitled “Lead-free BaTiO₃-based ferroelectric ceramics for energy storage and related applications”, the thesis focuses on the structural, dielectric, and ferroelectric study of tin-modified BaTiO₃ ceramics, aimed at their application in energy storage and solid-state cooling.

Aida Perramon Malavez defended her thesis co-directed by Clara Prats Soler and Antoni Soriano Arandes on July 16, 2025 at the Baix Llobregat Campus. Titled "Respiratory viruses in childhood: surveillance, analysis, and modelling of their epidemiological dynamics. The case of Catalonia.", the thesis presents the history and evolution of the main respiratory infections in Catalan childhood, from a perspective of dynamic analysis of complex systems and providing tools for monitoring, understanding and predicting these epidemics in Catalonia.

A methodology to quantify multidimensional ideological polarization has been proposed by researchers of the department of Physics.

Alejandro Salvatori defended his thesis co-directed by Michela Romanini and Pol Lloveras, on July 1, 2025 at the Besòs Campus. Entitled "Barocal effects in organic and ferroelectric plastic crystals", the thesis investigates the caloric effects induced by hydrostatic pressure through first-order phase transitions in molecular crystals that present orientational disordered phases, called plastic crystals. These effects promise more efficient and sustainable refrigeration technologies than current gas compressors, and also thermal batteries. The materials studied are of two types: organic plastic crystals, which present giant latent heats, and ferroelectric plastic crystals, novel compounds that present multiaxial ferroelectricity, orientable with an electric field

Physics plays a foundational role in engineering education, providing the essential principles that underpin nearly all areas of engineering practice—from mechanics and thermodynamics to electromagnetism and modern materials science. Teaching physics effectively within engineering degrees is crucial for developing students' problem-solving skills, analytical thinking, and deep conceptual understanding necessary for innovative and practical engineering solutions

Carles Rubio Maturana defended on June 3, his doctoral thesis on the diagnosis of malaria and urogenital schistosomiasis using artificial intelligence tools and a low-cost robotic microscope in the Doctoral Program in Microbiology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona under the direction of doctors Joan Joseph Munné and Elisa Sayrol Clols. The thesis is part of a project funded by the World Health Organization and directed by professor Daniel Lopez Codina from the Department of Physics at the UPC.