Fernando MartÃn, professor of the Chemistry Department of the Faculty of Science – UAM, has received the Rey Jaime I prize in the Basic Research category. This award recognizes his contribution in the establishment of the theoretical foundations of Attochemistry, which consist in observing and manipulating the electronic movement in atoms and molecules in their natural time scale - the attosecond (10-18 seconds). Dr. Martin’s team has been user of RES resources for more than 10 years, and their research activities have received more than 16 million CPU hours.
Dr. Martin’s research focuses on the theoretical modelling of photo-excitation and photoionization processes induced by synchrotron radiation or ultra-short laser pulses in atomic and molecular systems, as well as complex systems. He has published more than 400 research papers and in 2011 he was awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council to develop the XCHEM project. This project aimed to develop methods to understand the role of coherent dynamics of electrons in the attosecond scale in chemical processes.
Fernando MartÃn’s research group (Computations in Atomic and Molecular Physics of Unbound Systems) is referent in the Theoretical Attochemistry area in Europe. Their achievements have been recognized by several prizes like the Premio Nacional de Investigación Rey Juan Carlos I (2000), prize in Chemistry-Physics from Real Sociedad Española de QuÃmica (2010) and the ERC Advanced Grant XCHEM (2011).
The Rey Jaime I prizes, announced on 5 June, recognize people whose work is highly significant and has been developed in Spain. There are six categories: Basic Research, Economics, Medical Research / Clinical Medicine, Protection of Environment, New Technologies and Entrepreneurship. Winners receive 100’000 euros and have the commitment to allocate part of this amount for research or entrepreneurship in Spain.
