Last July 20th, 2017 took place the election of new director board of the Association of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Cantabria – AQUIQÁN. The board positions that have been renewed are President (Manuel Álvarez-Guerra) and Vice-President (Antonio Domínguez-Ramos), secretary (Gabriel Zarca) and Treasurer (María Margallo), while Andrés del Castillo, Sandra Sánchez, Iván Merino and Jonathan Albo join as board members. Moreover, Ángel Irabien has been elected as ANQUE assembly´s representative for the next 2 years.

From 17th to 21st July, Dr. Nazely Diban and Dr. Eugenio Bringas attended the course “Professional Development for University Academic Staff” organized by Dublin City University (Dublin, Ireland). This activity was performed in the framework of the Erasmus+ Programme through an specific action aiming at the development of teaching skills for those lecturers teaching in English at the University of Cantabria.

PhD students of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria presented their research results in a seminar organized by the Department in order to contribute to the dissemination of their activities. The seminar took place at room 03 of the ETSIIyT of the University of Cantabria last July 18 – 19, 2017. The presentations corresponded to the research activities in the following thematic areas:

• Environmental technologies for the treatment of liquid effluents and wastewaters
• Electrochemical technologies
• Membrane technologies
• Environmental management
• Chemical engineering and Energy
• New products/New technologies

María Fresnedo San Román and Claudia Solá attended the computational chemistry course “Gaussian Workshop Schedule”, organized by Gaussian Inc, and celebrated in the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Santiago de Compostela, last July 10-14, 2017.

Prof. Ane Urtiaga was part of the academic committee for selection of a new full professor in Chemical Engineering in the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, last July 4-5, 2017.

Beatriz Gómez, PhD student enrolled in the Chemical Engineering doctorate program of the University of Cantabria, is now doing a research stay as visiting researcher at the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Colorado School of Mines under the supervision of Professor Timothy Strathmann. The research stay is funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, under project CTM2013-44081-R (PI: A.M. Urtiaga) and the FPI grant (BES-2014-071045).

You are invited to visit  Beatriz’s profile at CSM webpage

Adham Tilovovich Norkobilov defended his doctoral thesis “Design of hybrid separation processes incorporating membrane technologies”, developed in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria under the supervision of Dr. Eugenio Daniel Gorri, last July 11th, 2017.

The evaluation committee was formed by Prof. Prof. Ángel Irabien Gulías (University of Cantabria), Prof. María Ujué Alzueta Ania (University of Zaragoza) and Dr. Javier Ereña (University of Basque Country).

Ane Urtiaga, María José Rivero, Nazely Dibán and Paula Ribao attended the 5^th European Conference on Environmental Applications of Advanced Oxidation Processes, celebrated last June 24-29, 2017 in  the Czech Republic. Ane gave the presentation “TiO2-graphene photocatalytic degradation of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)”. María José presented 2 posters: “Analysis of the adsorption mechanisms in the TiO2/UV photocatalysis to degrade benzothiazole and aniline” and “Conceptual design of a photocatalytic led reactor for grey water treatment”. Nazely and Paula presented the posters: “Electrochemical mineralization of naphtenic acids. Model solution on boron-doped diamond anode”; and “The role of reactive oxidative species in the photocatalytic activity of modified TiO2 catalysts”, respectively.

Carolina Fernández González defended her doctoral thesis “Novel nanocomposite membranes for a sustainable desalination”, developed in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria under the supervision of Dr. Raquel Ibáñez and Dr. Antonio Domínguez, last June 30th, 2017. The evaluation committee was formed by Prof. Arturo Romero (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Prof. Ane Urtiaga (Universidad de Cantabria) and Prof. Nalan Kabay (Ege University).

Last June 29th, 2017, Prof. Nalan Kabay,Chemical Engineering Department – Ege University (Turkey) gave the lecture “Application of Membrane Separation Processes for Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse”, at room 3 of the ETSIIyT of the University of Cantabria. The event was organized by Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Química, de la Energía y de Procesos.