Mariela M. Nolasco

Deputy Coordinator

Mariela Nolasco (MN, b. Barquisimeto, VE) is a computational spectroscopist. She received a Bachelor´s in Chemical Engineering in 1999, a first University degree in Chemistry in 2004 and a PhD degree (subfield of Physical Chemistry) from University of Aveiro (UA) in July 2007. After completing her doctorate she was awarded with a FCT grant to pursue her post-doctoral activities at CICECO/Physics Department/UA within a completely new area for at the Photonic Hybrids and Nanomaterials Group, under Professor Luis Dias Carlos supervision. Within this period, she has been also at the Univ Federal Pernambuco (UFP-Brazil) in the group Laboratório de Química Teórica e Computacional (LQTC), under Professor Ricardo Longo supervision. Currently she is a Research Assistant at Chemistry Department and CICECO/UA. Her research interests encompass the combined use of computational methods and spectroscopic techniques to bridge the gap between fundamental-to-applied and theoretical-to experimental research. It includes the combined use of discrete DFT/TD-DFT and periodic CASTEP calculations with Photoluminescence, FT-IR, Raman and Inelastic Neutron Scattering spectroscopies. MN is keenly interested in the application of computational spectroscopy to several different research areas, such as Photoluminescent Lanthanide Hybrid Materials, Luminescent Dendrimeric Materials, Cellulosic Nanostructured Materials, 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid (FDCA)-polymers, Deep Eutectic Solvents, as well as Hydrogen Bonds Dynamics. MN is the author of 53 articles in international peer reviewed multidisciplinary journals (20 as corresponding author, ), several oral and poster communications in national and international conferences (42) and 1 book chapter. The quality and impact of Mariela´s scientific work is demonstrated by an accumulated number of citations of > 1980 and h-index =24 (Scopus-Apr24 ). Additionally, she has acted as Invited Guest Editor for the special issue Computational Spectroscopy 2020 ¿ Molecules; Molecular Spectroscopy - Atomistic Simulations Crosstalk in the Study of Intermolecular Interactions 2021 ¿ Molecules and she is an active reviewer for international journals. She is Member of the Portuguese group Neutrons and Muons in Portugal ¿ NeMPo installing committee ¿ and her role in neutron science was recently highlighted by Neutronsources.org who considered her one Women in Neutron Science. Additionally, she was the winner of the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Impact Award 2021 on Society Award for her work characterising polymer structure and dynamics. She is a competitive researcher that was/is the PI of 8 R&D projects (2 National FCT projects, 6 International short-term projects at neutron facilities, ISIS Neutron & Muon Source (Oxford, Uk) and Institut Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France) and participated as member of the team in 8 R&D projects. She has already established her own research team and gained significant experience as scientific adviser by being responsible for the supervision of 3 research fellowships (2011/13, 2017/ 18/19), 10 BSc undergraduate research project (2012-13, 2019/20/21/22/23), 4 MSc Master thesis (2012/13, 2019/20, 2021/22/23), co-supervision and supervision of 2 PhD fellowships (2017-present) and supervision of 3 post-doctoral fellowship (2018/19, 2023/24), apart from 4 (2019-2020) undergraduate volunteer research projects. She was also involved as tutor in the Erasmus Mundus MSc Materials Science at CICECO (2015-2016). Apart from CICECO/UA members, MN collaborates with relevant scholars in the area of lanthanide luminescence, namely Professors Ricardo Longo and Oscar Malta from UFP - Brazil, as well as with Dr Svemir Rudic, Dr Stewart Parker and Dr Victoria Garcia Sakai from STFC Rutherford Appleton Lab ¿ ISIS Neutron & Muon Source- UK and Dr Pedro Vaz from Champalimaud Foundation. Additionally, the increasing interdisciplinary nature of her research enabled her to perform teaching functions in several disciplines.