Cristina Santamaría graduated in Chemistry from Universidad de La Rioja in 2018. During her undergraduate years she received, among others, an Erasmus scholarship for her third year at Queen´s University of Belfast and a collaboration scholarship in the Department of Engineering Projects under the direction of Fernando Alba Elías. He finished his time at the UR doing his final degree work in the Biological Chemistry group (QUIBI) of the University of La Rioja under the direction of professors Peregrina and Jiménez-Osés. In 2019, she completed the interuniversity Master´s Degree in Drug Discovery offered by the Complutense University of Madrid, Alcalá de Henares University and CEU San Pablo University. Her master´s thesis was carried out in the Peptides and Aromatic Compounds (PEPARO) research group at the Instituto de Química Orgánica General (IQOG) of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Ciencíticas (CSIC) under the direction of Dr. Herradón. In July 2023 she obtained her PhD in the Organic Chemistry programme at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, during which she collaborated in the ECONABAT project, directed by José Manuel Amarilla, Enrique Morales and Bernardo Herradón, developing her work in the Instituto de Química Orgánica General (IQOG-CSIC), Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Polímeros (ICTP-CSIC) and Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC). The aim of this project was the development and implementation of new organic electrolytes and the optimisation of composite electrodes for sodium ion batteries. During his pre-doctoral stage, he has supervised and co-directed the Master´s and Bachelor´s theses and internships of six students. Additionally, she is also part of the research team of the SosNaKBat project, which aims to design solid-state organic Na and K ion batteries.

Faithful believer that science, in order to be science, must be social and passionate about dissemination, she is part of the organising committee of activities such as the Chemistry Olympics in Madrid or the dissemination congress Trivulgando. She has been collaborating with the organisation of the popular science course "Advances in Chemistry and its impact on Society" for some years now, with the ultimate aim of making scientific culture accessible to everyone.

• Liquid electrolytes.
• Polymer electrolytes.
• Cathodes of layered metal oxides.
• Sodium ion batteries.
• Lithium-ion batteries.
• Organic solid state batteries.

• Electrochemistry.
• Organic chemistry.
• Materials science.
• Design of materials for energy storage.

• Winner of the "Youth Chemical Influencer" competition organised by the European Chemical Employers Group.
• Mentor-AJE grant from the Academia Joven de España.
• Scholarship for Postgraduate Students at the Residencia de Estudiantes funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation.
• Best Communication Award VI Conference to promote Basic Research for students of Science and Engineering of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.
• Collaboration Grant from Universidad de La Rioja in the Project Engineering group.
• Santander Internship Scholarship in SMES in Grupo Faustino.
• Erasmus Scholarship to carry out the third year of the degree at Queen´s University Belfast.