OUR TEAM
Group Leader
José J. Baldoví
Dr. José J. Baldoví (Xàtiva, 1986) is the director of the 2D Smart Materials Lab at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol) of the University of Valencia. He works as an Excellence Distinguished Researcher of the Gen-T Programme of the Generalitat Valenciana and is the principal investigator of the ERC Starting Grant 2D-SMARTiES, as well as member of the teaching and research staff of the Physical Chemistry department. He is also the President of the Association of Scientists of Excellence of the Gen-T Programme (AccenT), full member of the Young Academy of Spain and a representative of Spain in the Management Committee of the COST Action SuperQumap.
His research activity focuses on the development of theoretical and computational frameworks for the chemical design of smart molecular/2D devices for information technologies. His interdisciplinary work integrates physics, chemistry and materials science to explore emerging applications in magnonics, spintronics, quantum computing, and sensing devices. He was a Marie Curie-Sklodowska Fellow (2017-19) for the European Commission at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter in Hamburg (Germany). In 2009 graduated in Chemistry, completing a Master (2012) and a PhD in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (2016) in the University of Valencia, all of them with extraordinary award. His PhD thesis, based on the rational design of molecular nanomagnets with applications in nanoscience, molecular spintronics and quantum technologies, was achieved the highest score between all the PhD thesis in Chemistry of the University of València.
He is currently supervising a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow, 2 postdoctoral researchers, 5 PhD theses and 2 undergraduate students. He has published more than 60 papers in international indexed journals, a book chapter and 3 popular science articles, giving 29 invited talks at international conferences and 6 invited seminars. He chaired the 1st European School in Superconductivity and Magnetism in Quantum Materials and organized several workshops and symposia at international conferences. Furthermore, he holds a Master in Science Communication that allows him to transfer the value of science to society through different public science articles and events.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Sourav Dey
Sourav obtained his MSc in chemistry from IIT Kharagpur in 2016. Then he moved to IIT Bombay to pursue his PhD in molecular magnetism under the supervision of Prof. Gopalan Rajaraman. He has obtained PhD with highest grade “Naik and Rastogi Excellence in PhD Research” in 2022. Since 2023, Sourav is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow in 2DSmartMat Lab where his research focuses on the computational study of 2D magnetic materials and hybrid molecular heterostructures for applications in spintronics and magnonics.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrei Shumilin
Andrei obtained his PhD in Saint Petersburg in 2011 with the specialization in theoretical physics. He worked in Ioffe Institute (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and then in Jozef Stefan Institute (Ljubljana, Slovenia). His main focus was the spin and transport properties of solid-state materials. Since 2024, Andrei is a postdoctoral fellow in 2DSmartMat Lab where his researched focus on non-linear magnonics and magnon-qubit interactions.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Nassima Benchtaber
Nassima obtained her Master’s degree in Material Science, Engineering, and Environment from the University of Ibn Zohr, Agadir, Morocco. She then moved to the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, to pursue her Ph.D. in Physics at the Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Physics and Complex Systems (IFISC) She was awarded an FPI grant by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities to support her research.
After completing her Ph.D., Nassima spent six months at the Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, China, working on the «Comprehensive Investigation of Molybdenum Phosphide Transport Properties from First Principles» project.
Since May 2024, Nassima has been a junior researcher in the 2DSmartMat Lab, where she is contributing to the «Chemical Design of Smart Molecular/2D Devices for Information Technologies (2D-SMARTIES)» research line, part of an ERC-funded project directed by Dr. Jose Jaime Baldovi. Nassima’s research interests focus on quantum transport and the electronic and transport properties of 2D materials.
PhD candidate
Diego López Alcalá
Diego López Alcalá was born in Valencia in 1998. He graduated in chemistry at Universitat de València (2021) and then he completed his masters in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Instituto de Ciencia Molecular (ICMol). In 2022 he joined 2D Smart Materials Lab to develop his PhD studies under the supervision of Dr José J. Baldoví, working on the chemical design of smart molecular/2D materials for applications in spintronics.
PhD candidate
Gonzalo Rivero Carracedo
Gonzalo graduated in Chemistry at Universidad de La Laguna in 2021 and obtained a MSc in Molecular Nanoscience & Nanotechnology at Universitat de València in 2022. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD which focuses on the theoretical study of bidimensional magnetic materials and hybrid molecular/2D heterostructures for applications in magnonics.
PhD candidate
Alberto Montoya Ruiz
Alberto completed his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena (UPCT) before moving to the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol), where he obtained a master’s in Molecular Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. He is currently a PhD student as an FPU fellow, focusing on the rationalization of the magnetic properties of 2D magnetic materials and seeking strategies to boost their magnetic performance.
