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Background notes:

I obtained my PhD in Condensed Matter Physics at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 1990. I then spent two years at the University of California at Berkeley as a Fulbright fellow, and one year at the Max-Planck Institute for Solid-State Research, as an Alexander-von-Humboldt fellow. In 1993 I became Assistant Professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, where I was tenured by the end of 1995. During my years in Madrid, I spent part of 1999 as Visiting Professor at the Ecole Normale Superiere de Lyon. In 2001 I was appointed Lecturer at the Earth Sciences Department in Cambridge, and became Reader in Condensed Matter Simulations in October 2002. I am Official Fellow of Clare Hall since March 2002.

I am involved in the development and application of first-principles methods for the simulation of matter in the solid and liquid state. In collaboration with the SIESTA team, we have implemented our own linear-scaling density-functional method for the purpose. I have used it for the study of nanostructured materials (carbon nanotubes, metallic clusters), biomolecules, and lately to clays and molten silicon. I am intereseted in silica melts, wet surfaces, and the bio-geo interface in general. Recent results include:

• Resolution of the electronic structure of poly-dG - poly-dC A-DNA, finding that it should not be a good conductor
• Simulation of the surface of liquid silicon, finding unexpected layering (density oscillations decaying into the bulk)
• Burning carbon nanotubes leaves them open-ended: we found how oxygen saturates the active rim at the tip avoiding its closure
• Gold nanoclusters amorphise if small enough, even for sizes for which wonderfully ordered structures could exist
• Polarons have been found for carbon nanotubes and DNA
• The dynamics of Pb adatoms on the Si(111)-7x7 surface was resolved by theory and experiment