ICFO

📣The annual career event looks to bring together members of our Network to share aspects of their experience post ICFO to help guide current and fellow Alumni who are considering new professional options.

This year we are focusing on Barcelona as a destination for scientific talent, with ICFO Alumni sharing their insights for building a science based career within the city's innovation ecosystem.

🎤 Keynote address by Josep Ll. Sanfeliu, Managing Partner at Asabys Partners and President of Barcelona Global

👥 Alumni Round Table with:
▫️ Teresa Karanikolaou, Senior Scientist at Lace Lithography
▫️ Joana Fraxanet, Researcher at IBM Research
▫️ Christina Graham, Domain Expert & Project Manager at MeetOptics
▫️ Jason Otterstrom, Account Executive at Abbelight
▫️ Ramón Ramos, Head of Quantum Simulation at IDEADED

The event will close with a special Social Friday for networking in ICFO's picnic area.

📅 Friday, 23rd October 2026
📍 ICFO Auditorium

Register here 👉 https://www.icfo.eu/event/4353/beyond-icfo-2026-science-based-careers-within-barcelonas-innovation-ecosystem/

📝 Solar cells gain efficiency by emitting light in fewer directions

ICFO researchers, Dr. Francisco Bernal Texca, Chiara Cortese, Dr. Mariia Kramarenko, and Dr. Quan Liu, led by ICFO and UPC Professor Jordi Martorell, have increased the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells by restricting the angles at which they emit light.

The strategy, presented in Energy & Environmental Science, offers a promising path to surpass the standard theoretical efficiency limit for single-junction solar cells.

ICFO News 👉 https://bit.ly/3VjYRsD



📸 (1) Francisco Bernal Texca in the lab | (2) Close-up picture of the device. | (3) Chiara Cortese, Francisco Bernal Texca, and Jordi Martorell, in their lab at ICFO.

📝 A spin rephased quantum memory for single photons

ICFO researchers, Alberto Rodríguez Moldes, Dr. Félicien Appas, Jonathan Hänni, Dr. Jelena Rakonjac, and Dr. Samuele Grandi, led by ICREA Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten, have applied a spin rephasing mechanism to store quantum light in a solid-state quantum memory.

The work, published in Physical Review Letters and obtained within the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA), achieves the longest storage time to date for single photons in this kind of memory, marking a significant enabling step towards the quantum internet.

ICFO News 👉https://bit.ly/4iFnx8v

📸(1) Group picture (from left to right): Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten, Alberto Rodríguez Moldes and Jonathan Hänni at their lab at ICFO | (2) Image of the experimental set-up. | (3) Close-up of the quantum memories.

Arriba la Nit Europea de la Recerca! 🌙🔬

La se celebra simultàniament a més de 25 països europeus i té com a objectiu posar en valor la recerca i la innovació, apropant-les de manera planera a públics de totes les edats.

Com cada any podreu trobar els i les participant en les xerrades i tallers. Apunteu-vos les dates al calendari i registreu-vos!

Taller al Centre Cívic Casa Golferichs | 29/09/2026 | 18:00h - 18:45h

👩‍🏫 Interferència clàssica i quàntica, a càrrec de Jorge Fuenzalida i Evelyn A. Ortega

Registra't al taller 👉 https://lanitdelarecerca.cat/taller-interferencia-classica-i-quantica/

Taller al Centre Cultural Sant Josep (L’Hospitalet) | 29/09/2026 | 18:00h - 18:45h

💡Com afecta la llum el comportament?, a càrrec de Montserrat Porta de la Riva

Registra't al taller 👉 https://lanitdelarecerca.cat/taller-com-afecta-la-llum-el-comportament/

Bloc de Xerrades Científiques a la Biblioteca Gabriel García Márquez: El món de la llum i l’atzar | 01/10/2026 | 19:00h - 20:00h

🔦 Interacció entre llum i matèria al límit quàntic, a càrrec de Abraham Nava

🎲 És el nostre món aleatori?, a càrrec de Antonio Acín

🔢 Com tenir nombres aleatoris veritablement secrets, a càrrec de Tomás Fernández Martos

Registra't al web 👉 https://lanitdelarecerca.cat/bloc-de-xerrades-cientifiques-a-la-biblioteca-gabriel-garcia-marquez-el-mon-de-la-llum-i-atzar/

Bloc de Xerrades Científiques a l’Auditori Barradas: Entrellaçament quàntic, gens i cervell | 02/10/2026 | 19:00h – 20:00h

🧶Teixint entrellaçament quàntic: les limitacions fonamentals de les xarxes quàntiques, a càrrec de Isaac Smith

Registra't a les xerrades 👉 https://lanitdelarecerca.cat/bloc-de-xerrades-cientifiques-a-lauditori-barradas/

Associació Catalana de Comunicació Científica

Congratulations to New ICFO PhD Graduate

We congratulate Dr. Leila Rocio Prelat who defended her thesis this morning in ICFO’s Auditorium.

Dr. Prélat obtained her MSc in Physics from the Universidad de Buenos Aires; and she joined the Nanophotonics Theory research group led by ICREA Prof. Dr. Javier García de Abajo. Her thesis titled “Free-electron interaction with nanophotonic excitations” was supervised by Prof. Dr. Javier García de Abajo.

Congratulations Leila!!! 👏👏👏

ICFO News 👉 https://www.icfo.eu/news/2704/congratulations-to-new-icfo-phd-graduate/140/

📝 The Golgi feels and responds to mechanical forces from outside the cell

ICFO and CNRS researchers have discovered that the Golgi apparatus, an internal organelle, is not a passive observer of how cells respond to mechanical forces, but actively senses and adapts to them.

👥 The study, carried out by ICFO researchers Dr. Javier Vera Lillo, PhD, Dr. Eugènia Almacellas i Canals, Dr. Nicolas Mateos Estevez, Dr. Jessica Angulo Capel, Adam Wołowczyk, ICREA Prof. María García Parajo, and Prof. Dr. Felix Campelo, in collaboration with CNRS, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Universitat de Barcelona, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, has been published in the Journal of Cell Biology.

ICFO News 👉 https://bit.ly/3SCnyj0

📸 Representative images of fixed HeLa cells acquired by confocal microscopy after different time periods. Source: Journal of Cell Biology.

Congratulations to New ICFO PhD Graduate!

We congratulate Dr. Adrian Pinilla who defended his thesis this afternoon in ICFO’s Auditorium.

Dr. Pinilla obtained his MSc in Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences from the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), before joining the CO2 Mitigation Accelerated by Photons research group led by professor Dr. F. Pelayo García de Arquer. His thesis titled "Advanced Catalytic Interface Analysis Through In Situ Studies and Automated Experimental Platforms" was supervised by Prof. F. Pelayo García de Arquer.

Congratulations Adrian!!!! 👏👏👏

ICFO News 👉 https://www.icfo.eu/news/2703/congratulations-to-new-icfo-phd-graduate/140/

Launch of the new QPLANET pilot

The recently launched Pilot aims at building Europe's first quantum industrial pilot line based on the next generation of neutral atom based quantum chips.

Coordinated by Pasqal, QPLANET brings together 28 research organizations, industrial partners and academic groups across 11 EU member states, working toward a resilient, scalable European supply chain for quantum chips.

ICFO takes part as a quantum technology provider and as one of the project's key testing sites, drawing on expertise from three of its research groups: Atomic Quantum Optics, led by Morgan Mitchell, Ultracold Quantum Gases, led by Leticia Tarruell, and Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms, led by Hugues de Riedmatten. ICFO will also validate laser components across three of the project's four target wavelengths.

Dive into the details of this new quantum initiative 👉https://www.icfo.eu/news/2700/launch-of-the-new-qplanet-pilot-line/140/

📝 C. elegans senses its physical environment to adapt its movement

While studying the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, ICFO researchers, Dr. Aleksandra Pidde, Dr. Montserrat Porta de la Riva, Dr. Costanza Agazzi, Dr. Carmen Martínez Fernández, PhD, Alice Lorrach, Dr. Neus Sanfeliu Cerdán and Dr. Alba Calatayud Sánchez, led by ICFO Prof. Michael Krieg, and in collaboration with the Centre Internacional de Mètodes Numèrics en Enginyeria (CIMNE) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, have discovered that touch receptor neurons can detect the friction generated by the ground as the worm crawls. The worm can thus actively move to explore its surroundings and adjust its position accordingly.

These results have been recently published in Nature Communications.

ICFO News 👉 https://bit.ly/4gB1tsK

📸 An adult C. elegans animal which has endogenously labeled the cell nucleolus. Credit: Carmen Martínez Fernández, ICFO.

💧Transforming wastewater into valuable resources

, a new EU-funded project, will develop technology to convert excess nitrogen pollutants in water into valuable products, such as ammonia and sustainable biopolymers.

This week, from 23 to 27 August, the international water community gathered in Stockholm for World Water Week, where Water4All - Partnership, the EU partnership funding eLitre, presented eLitre as one of the projects they fund.

The eLitre project brings together ICFO, the University of Galway, Delft University of Technology, Lodz University of Technology and the industrial partner Sorigué.

Visit the project website to follow updates👉https://elitre.eu/

Read the news on ICFO's website 👉https://www.icfo.eu/news/2697/transforming-wastewater-into-valuable-resources/

📽️ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vNKHC5OT90

Electrochemical recovery of nitrogen vectors from wastewater - The eLitre project Overuse of fertilizers in large-scale agriculture is overwhelming o...