Irene Calvo Almazán

Associate professor at the Condensed Matter Physics Department of the University of Zaragoza.

Previously, I did my PhD at the Institut Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France) in 2010 - 2013. Then I obtained a Ramón Areces Fellowship for a postdoctoral stay at the Cavendish Laboratory (University of Cambridge, UK) from 2014 - 2016. Afterwards I worked as a postdoctoral associate and as an assistant physicist in tenure track in Argonne National Laboratory (USA) from 2017 until 2021.

My primary scientific interest is the study of the basic atomic processes (e.g. molecular surface diffusion, strain and defects in nano-crystals, crystallization and dissolution in liquid solution) which govern the dynamics and the structure in crystals. Along these lines, I have developed an expertise in the design of scattering experiments which include neutron, helium atom and coherent x-rays scattering to investigate, in real time, the evolution of the crystalline structure and morphology in reactive environments. Recently I have focused in the development of novel microscopy techniques which exploit the extreme brilliance of 4th generation synchrotrons like the ESRF (France) or APS (US), to visualize dynamical processes in three dimensions such as the crystallization or dissolution of a crystal in liquid solution, or the evolution of the internal structure of a magnetic material upon magnetic domain walls dynamics.