Laura Rodríguez Arco

I am a postdoctoral fellow (Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación) at the Department of Applied Physics, working in the group “Physics of Interfaces and Colloid Systems”.

I graduated in Physics at the University of Granada in 2014, supervised by Prof. Modesto Torcuato López López y  Prof. Juan de Dios García López Durán. My PhD was funded by a PhD fellowship from the Andalusia government and the Spanish PhD Fellowship for Training of University Lecturers (FPU for its initials in Spanish). During my PhD I visited the group of Dr. Georges Bossis at CNRS and the University of Nice (France) for six months. After my PhD I stayed at UGR for some months before moving to the University of Bristol (UoB) in 2015 to join the group of Prof. Stephen Mann FRS as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Fellow. In 2017 I started working at University College London (UCL) in the group of Prof. Giuseppe Battaglia.

During my PhD I specialized in the design and mechanical characterization of magnetic field-responsive materials. I also collaborated with Fagor Electrodomesticos®. After that I prepared magnetic biomaterials generated by tissue engineering. My MSCA project dealt with the design and construction of magnetic micromachines based on artificial cell design. At UCL I engineer polymer compartments (polymersomes) used as nanoreactors or in drug delivery. My long term aim is to set up a research line devoted to the design of materials inspired in artificial cells and remotely controlled by external forces.

You can check a list of my publications here.

In addition to research, I also enjoy much teaching and public engagement activities. I have participated in teaching innovation projects and a Tutorial Action Plan. I was part of PERFORM, a Horizon 2020 project aiming to engage secondary students with science.