My academic trajectory started in 2008 when I was finishing a 5-year degree in Mechanical Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). I was awarded a European Erasmus Scholarship to conduct M.Sc. Thesis research at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Sweden) to study flow mixing in biomass-based energy propulsion systems.
After that exciting experience, I decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Fluid Mechanics. I joined the Heat and Mass Transfer Technological Center (UPC, Spain) in 2009 to carry out theoretical and computational research. My work under Prof. A. Oliva’s guidance focused on two-phase turbulence. The research was funded by a Formación de Profesorado Universitario Scholarship (FPU), which also supported a research stay at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). During my Ph.D., I served as the instructor for the Computational Heat and Mass Transfer course, and I helped mentor the work of several Ph.D. candidates. I defended my Ph.D. thesis in July 2014 obtaining an Excellent Cum Laude (European Mention), resulting in 6 articles, 14 international conferences, and participating in 4 research projects.
In the Fall of 2014, I participated in the highly competitive call for Postdoctoral Research Fellowships of the Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) at Stanford University (USA). I was selected and joined the center in 2015 to work with Profs. G. Iaccarino and P. Moin. My research focused on the physics, modeling, and computational development of an Exascale-ready multiscale flow framework to study irradiated particle-laden turbulence in solar energy receivers. We were awarded Early Science Access to the new Sierra supercomputer (ranked top 5 in the World) to study the heat transfer of multiscale particle motion in irradiated turbulence (I was co-PI). In parallel, I also worked on developing a model for describing the hydrodynamics of high-pressure propulsion flows. This work was later published as a review article in Progress in Energy and Combustion Science (IF: 29.4).
In 2017, I was promoted to Engineering Research Associate at Stanford University, where I continued working on the projects described above by supervising several Ph.D. students, and on additional topics through collaborations with Prof. A. Doostan (University of Colorado Boulder, USA) and Senior Researcher S. P. Domino (Sandia National Laboratories, USA) on Predictive Science & Engineering in Multiscale Flows and Data Science. In addition, I helped teach Stanford’s Ph.D. graduate course ME469: Computational Methods in Fluid Mechanics, participated in the biennial CTR International Summer Program, and was selected as a Review Panel Member of the National Science Foundation (Multiphysics Flow Physics).
In 2020, I was appointed as a Beatriz Galindo Junior Professor & Researcher (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain) in the Department of Fluid Mechanics at UPC, where I taught courses on Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, and Transport Phenomena. I led research and collaborated on topics related to multiphysics flows, supercritical fluids, and turbulence with applications to advanced energy, propulsion & transportation systems.
In January 2022, I was granted an ERC Starting Grant 2022-2027 [Turbulence-On-a-Chip: Supercritically Overcoming the Energy Frontier in Microfluidics (SCRAMBLE-10104037)]. The project focuses on achieving turbulent flow regimes at microfluidic conditions by utilizing supercritical fluids, involving theoretical, experimental, and computational research. The scientific insight obtained will be leveraged to propose and design improved microfluidic energy solutions and systems. Alongside this, I participate in different research projects funded by the Spanish National Research Agency (AEI), including predicting the distribution of microplastics in turbulent marine systems (as PI, TED2021-132623A-I00) and utilizing microfluidics to wirelessly interact with microorganisms (as work package leader, PDC2022-133091-I00). Building upon these successes, my research portfolio has recently expanded to include the AEI METAFLUID-VERSE project, as well as the ERC Proof of Concept (PoC) STELLAR project, which focuses on translating our fundamental discoveries into tangible, high-impact technological innovations.
Finally, after obtaining the Spanish Research Certificate I3 (I3/2021/0189) in January 2023, I transitioned to the position of Associate Professor (Profesor Agregado) in the Department of Fluid Mechanics at UPC in 2024. In recognition of my research trajectory, scientific impact, and leadership, I was recently honored with the prestigious ICREA Academia Excellence award, further consolidating my commitment to pioneering research in fluid mechanics.