Biography

Mª Mercedes Fernández earned her BS and her PhD from the University of the Basque Country.

She has been a researcher at Elf-Aquitaine in Lacq (France) and participated in various academia and industrial projects, including a 7 years project financed by Repsol and a 4 years European project of the VIth Programme Framework.

She has directed 9 Master-Thesis and co-directed 2 PhD Thesis.

Currently she is working in POLYMAT as a post-doctoral researcher (Investigador Doctor Ley Ciencia).

Research

The rheology of structured polymers, in particular polymer nanocomposites. The research has a basic and an applied content and is based on theoretical and experimental rheology. The polymer-nanoparticle interactions or flexible chain-rigid microdomain interactions modifies the viscoelastic terminal zone. Explaining the ultimate causes of the observed peculiar viscoelastic behaviour will open the door to a new and appealing tool to characterize structured polymers. Extending linear viscoelastic results towards to non-linear rheology, introduce the research into the field of polymer nanocomposites processing. The analysis of elongational flows of polymer nanocomposites based on carbon nanotubes will lead to create electrically conducting fibers, stimulating technological advancement. On the other hand, the correlation between viscoelasticity and adhesion of nanocomposites, in the frontier of basic and applied rheology, complete the research devoted to the development of novel applications.

Publications

Mercedes Fernández has published 48 articles in international journals and contributed with posters and oral communications in more than 60 scientific conferences.