Serra Alfaro, José Manuel

/in /by

Prof. José M. Serra (Valencia, 1976) completed his doctoral dissertation at the ITQ under the supervision of Prof. A. Corma, in collaboration with the Institut Français du Pétrole. The dissertation focused on the development of new tools for combinatorial catalysis and their application in the design and optimization of new industrial catalysts. He completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany, working on the development of nanostructured SOFC cathodes as well as ion-conducting membranes. In 2006, he returned to the ITQ, where he currently heads the research line on fuel cells and ion-conducting membranes, leading the ITQ’s Energy Conversion and Storage Group. His scientific work focuses primarily on the application of catalysis and materials science to: a) the development of components for solid oxide fuel cells/electrolyzers, with special attention to the design and characterization of new electrocatalysts; and b) the development of mixed-ion-electron-conducting membranes for the separation of oxygen and hydrogen and for their application in membrane catalytic reactors. As a result of his work, Jose M. Serra is the co-author of more than 190 articles, 18 book chapters, and 27 patents in the field of catalysis and energy. Prof. Serra is the CSIC representative in the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA): Basic Science for Energy Joint Programme (AMPEA). He coordinated the CSIC’s White Paper on “Clean, Safe, and Efficient Energy.”
Website: http://itqmembranes.itq.webs.upv.es

Palomares Gimeno, Antonio Eduardo

/in , , /by

University Professor and First Deputy Director of ITQ. Director of the CIMSA-Sustainability Business Lab and Academic Director of the Master’s Program in Sustainable Chemistry. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry, his research focuses on the application of new materials in the fields of sustainability and the environment. He has published numerous articles in international journals, has been invited to present at conferences, and serves as a coordinator for public-private projects involving international collaborations. He has supervised 8 doctoral theses and has been awarded 5 research tenure periods (six-year terms) and 6 teaching tenure periods (five-year terms). He has been teaching since 1997, covering courses in Industrial Engineering and Chemical Engineering at both the undergraduate and master’s levels.

Martínez Sánchez, Cristina

/in , /by

Cristina Martínez Sánchez holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Valencia (1991) and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1996). After a stay at the Institüt für Technische Chemie at the University of Leipzig, she returned to the Institute of Chemical Technology, CSIC-UPV (ITQ). In 2006, she was appointed Senior Researcher at the CSIC at the same institute, and in 2025 she was promoted to Senior Research Scientist.
She has an established track record in heterogeneous catalysis and the optimization of advanced materials for industrial processes, with a special focus on sustainability and the energy transition.
Since October 2024, she has served as the ITQ’s deputy scientific director.

Renz, Michael

/in , , /by

Michael Renz earned his Ph.D. in Chemical Sciences from the University of Würzburg (1997) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the CNRS (Toulouse). Since 1999, he has been working at the Institute of Chemical Technology, where he holds research status and is accredited as a tenured professor (2011). His research focuses on the hydrothermal carbonization of residual lignocellulosic biomass, the catalytic transformation of furfural derivatives, and the recovery of phosphorus from secondary sources.

He has collaborated with Unilever, Shell, Cargill, and Cepsa. He participates in the BioReSteel and HarWASTing projects to derive added value from hydrochar.

García Alfonso, Inmaculada

/in , /by