Mariana Díaz Vejo defended her doctoral thesis “Development of new high-performance conductive membranes based on polymerized ionic liquids for their use in fuel cells”, developed in the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria, under the supervision of Prof. Inmaculada Ortiz and Dr. Alfredo Ortiz. The evaluation committee was formed by Prof. Dr. Isabel María Marucho (University of Lisbon), Dr. Eugenio Daniel Gorri (University of Cantabria) and Dr. Rebeca Marcilla (IMDEA Energy Institute).

Dr. Rebeca Marcilla, Electrochemical Process Group – IMDEA – Madrid, taught the lecture “Almacenamiento electroquímico de energía: Retos presentes y futuros” at the conference room of the ETSIIyT of the University of Cantabria, last February 7^th, 2017.

On February 1^st, 2017, Gema Pérez started enjoy a new stage as research technician in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC, thanks to the aid of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the State Program for Promotion of Talent and Employability in R+D+i.

Last January 31^st, 2017 took place the elections to the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department Council, to renew non-doctor´s PDI representatives.  The electoral table was formed by Manuel Álvarez, María Margallo, Carolina Fernández and Pablo Fernández.

After the elections, they counted the votes and the new representatives are: Beatriz Arce, Jenifer Gómez, Beatriz Gómez, Selene Cobo, Paula Ribao, Marta Herrero, Ana Hernández, Raul Zarca, Ivan Merino, Sandra Sánchez and Claudia Solá.

Last January 30^th, 2017 a group of students of the high school Marques de Santillana, located in Torrelavega, visited our laboratories.

Last January 27^th, 2017 during the celebration of the academic feast of St. Thomas Aquinas at the Paraninfo of the University of Cantabria, the distinguished doctorate thesis were awarded. In this edition, Enrique Álvarez, María Margallo and Esther Santos, doctors that followed the program in Chemical and Process Engineering of the UC, received the award to distinguished doctorate thesis in the field of Engineering.

Moreover, Cristina González received the best academic record among new graduates in the Chemical Engineering Degree, year 2015-2016.

Moreover, during the event took place the nomination of Isabel García, Raquel Onandía, Marta Sebastiá, Gabriel Zarca, Isabel Ortiz and Germán Santos as Doctors of the University of Cantabria.

Last January 26^th, 2017 Agilent Technologies and the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department of the University of Cantabria organized the seminar “Innovación en Espectroscopía Atómica y Molecular”, attended by more than 90 people.

The event started with the welcoming by Jose Angel Rodríguez and Rubén García, Agilent sales assisstants. Then Gema Pérez, on behalf of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department presented the “Analytical Services of the SOSPROCAN Unit”. Fernando Tobalina, product specialist from Agilent Technologies, gave a presentation about UV-Vis-NIR systems for advanced characterization of materials. Afterwards, Nikolay Kovachev, another product specialist from Agilent Technologies, presented the advances in FTIR spectroscopy for routine and research analysis, developing a practical demonstration with the equipment Agilent Cary 630.

After a coffee break, Nikolay Kovachev presented the New methodologies for elemental analysis to determine major and trazes components in complex samples.  Fernando Tobalina talked about metal analysis in complex samples by ICP-OES. Jose Angel Rodríguez showed ways of increasing the analytical capacities of a laboratory by using ICP-MS and ICP_MS_QQQ and finally Nikolay Kovachev gave same tips to increase productivity, reducing costs without losing quality in the results.

Raquel Ibáñez and María Margallo visited the canning company Islas Cies located in the industrial area El Morero, targeting at the supervision of student internships. The visit took place on January 18^th, 2017 and they were received by Jose Antonio Guisande Álvarez, delegate in Cantabria.

Gabriel Zarca attended the 3^rd International Conference on Ionic Liquids in Separation and Purification Technology, celebrated in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) last January 8-11, 2017, where he presented the work “Low-viscosity ionic liquid media for carbon monoxide/nitrogen separation by reactive absorption”.