Dr Montserrat Galceran Mestres studied Chemistry at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) of Tarragona (Spain), during the course of which she undertook a stay at the Universität Eberhard Karls (Germany) funded by an Erasmus mobility grant, before graduating with an MSc in Materials Science and Engineering. Her doctoral studies - into advanced nanomaterials for optical applications and fundamental understanding of the relationship between material properties and material dimensions - led to her being awarded with the “Extraordinary PhD award” bestowed by the URV. During the course of her PhD, she undertook two stays – one at the Polish Academy of Science (Poland) focussed on novel synthesis of nanoceramics, one at the Institute of Materials Science (Madrid) focussed on spectroscopic analyses – in order to more fully explore her topic and to develop other complementary skills. This strong and interdisciplinar scientific background enabled her to take advantage of a unique opportunity at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) to lead a project for the development of a breakthrough technique called Automated Crystallographic Orientation Mapping, which was integrated with a Transmission Electron Microscope (in collaboration with ArcelorMittal and Nanomegas). Seeking to best leverage her skills and interdisciplinarity in the field of materials science, Dr Galceran has refocussed on the challenging and important field of energy storage. Joining CIC energiGUNE as a post-doc researcher in 2013. During that time, she has undertaken research stays at Hydro-Quebec (Montreal, Canada, funded by a successful Jose Castillejo mobility grant application) and the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Barcelona in order to enhance her scientific and transversal skills. Since 2016, she is the research line manager for Na-ion batteries, where her research focuses on understanding and developing new, low cost, and environmentally friendly electrode materials for the next generation of intercalation systems for energy storage. From her experience in the field of research, she has honed an ability to rapidly transfer knowledge between relevant partners, as well as the multidisciplinary leveraging of key concepts and/or techniques. By seeking to understand material properties through multi-technique approaches, Dr Galceran combines material development with wide range of characterisations techniques in order to achieve application-targeted tailored optimisation. With a strong interest in sustainable development, she seeks to advance the field of energy storage from both scientific and industrial perspectives.

• Exploring pathways for the industrial advancement of sodium-ion technology
• Materials development and optimization for the next generation of sodium and lithium ion batteries
• Unravelling the mechanisms governing electrochemical performance through multi-technique approaches
• Collaborating with partners from internal to international levels, in order to develop multidisciplinary methodologies
• Supporting scientific advancement by using her expertise in order to evaluate European and National projects

• Material Science and chemistry
• Materials development: synthesis, sintering, etc.
• Structural characterization
• Electron microscopy
• Experience at Synchrotron facilities
• Improving the understanding of material properties through a multi-technique approach.

• PhD mobility fellowship from AGAUR (Government of Catalonia)
• Extraordinary PhD award by Universitat Rovira i Virgili.
• “José Castillejo" mobility fellowship from Ministry of Economy and competitiveness of Spain.
• “Ayudas formación Post-doctoral” Grant from Ministry of Economy and competitiveness of Spain.
• Member of the specialized groups GE3C and QES of the Real Sociedad Española de Quimíca (RSEQ).
• National and EU Expert Evaluator.