Principal Investigator:
Prof. Francisco MOLINA-LOPEZ
Surface and Interface Engineered Materials Unit
Department of Materials Engineering, KU Leuven
Prof. Francisco Molina-Lopez was born in Granada (Spain) in 1984. He majored in Physics and Electrical Engineering (awarded the highest score of the year) at the University of Granada in 2009. During his undergrad years, he also studied at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland) and the University of California in San Diego (UCSD, USA) as an exchange student.
In 2014, he completed his PhD in printed and flexible environmental sensors at EPFL. His doctoral research took place within the consortium of the Marie Curie European project FlexSmell, and included a research visit to VTT (Finland). After graduating, he received the Early Postdoc Mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to continue his postdoctoral research activity in the Bao group at Stanford University, in collaboration with the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (USA). There, he conducted research in printed organic electronics and stretchable skin electronics for more than 3 years. Afterward, he gained industrial experience at the heart of the Silicon Valley by joining Apple as a touch-module senior process engineer in January 2018. In March of 2019, Prof. Francisco Molina-Lopez was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Surface and Interface Engineered Materials Unit of the Department of Materials Engineering (MTM) of KU Leuven (Belgium), where he is working in printed and flexible functional materials and devices for energy harvesting and wearable autonomous sensing systems. In 2020 he received the prestigious H2020 ERC Starting Grant for the project 3DALIGN, which tackles the 3D printing of organic thermoelectric materials.
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Jan. 2018 - Feb. 2019
Apple Inc., USA
Senior Touch Module Process Engineer
Oct. 2014 - Jan. 2018
Stanford University, USA
Postdoctoral Researcher in Organic Stretchable Electronics
Mar. 2010 - Jun. 2014
EPFL, Switzerland
VTT, Finland
PhD in Printed Environmental Sensors on Foil
Sep. 2002 - Sep. 2009
University of Granada, Spain
EPFL, Switzerland / UCSD, USA
Double Major in Physics and Electrical Engineering
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Printed Electronics
-
Inkjet printing, 3D printing, spray coating and solution shearing.
-
Formulation of inks with organic electronic materials and nano materials (CNTs and nanoparticles).
Flexible and Stretchable Electronics for Wearables
-
Transistors, sensors.
Energy Harvesters
-
Photovoltaics, thermoelectrics.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
H0S64A/H02W6A: Industrial Experience/Internship (Master of Master Material Engineering)
​
H06G4A: Materials Physics and Technology for Nanoelectronics (Master of Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering & Master Material Engineering)
​
H02W7A: Nanomaterials for Nano-electronics
(Master of Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering & Master Material Engineering)
​
H0651A: Surface Science and Engineering
(Master Material Engineering)
​
​​