Responsables

The Director is the head of the Center and the major responsible for the overall design, strategy and performance of the Center.

Prof. José María Pitarke is the director of CIC nanoGUNE since its creation in 2006. J. M. Pitarke studied physics at the University of the Basque Country, where he received his Ph. D degree (with distinction) in 1990 studying some aspects of tunneling spectroscopy and electron and photon emission in solids. After a postdoctoral stay at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) in the group of Rufus Ritchie, he obtained, in 1993, a permanent position at the University of the Basque Country, which he combined with sabbatical semesters at various USA Universities and the Imperial College of the University of London, UK. Since 2000, he has been full professor of condensed matter physics. His research interests include condensed matter theory, many-body interactions in solid surfaces, dynamical response of solid materials, nanophotonics, and the interaction of charged particles with matter. J. M. Pitarke is By-Fellow of the Churchill College of the University of Cambridge (2005). He is also Co-researcher Coordinator of the Consolider-Ingenio programme CIC nanoGUNE Consolider.

The research director of nanoGUNE, working closely with the director, is responsible for the design, coordination, and operation of the research groups, formulating the research vision of the center and providing the research leadership.

Dr. Andreas Berger is the research director of nanoGUNE from July 1 2007. He is also the group leader of the nanoelectronics research group. Dr. Berger received his PhD (with distinction) in 1993 from the Technical University (RWTH) Aachen in Germany, where he worked on surface characterization and modification. From 1993 to 2001, he worked at various USA Universities and Argonne National Laboratory. In 2001, he moved to IBMs Almaden Research Center where he worked until his transfer to Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST) in 2003. In HGST, Dr. Berger was responsible for conducting technical feasibility studies of novel thin film structures for disk storage applications and complementary scientific research efforts on novel magnetic materials and deposition processing. Dr. Berger has been awarded the Research Visitor Fellowship (American Nuclear Society) in 1991, the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship (Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) in 1993, the BorchersMedal (RWTH Aachen) in 1994, and the Guest Lectureship by the Research Center Julich in 1999.

The projects & outreach manager assists the director and research director in the design of the strategy for attracting funds and in managing the project portfolio of the Center, as well as in the promotion of the cooperation of the different agents of the RVCTI. The project & outreach manager also participates in the organization of events, conferences, seminars, and training courses and leads the communication, science, society, and education activities of the Center.

The finance director is responsible for the accounting, administrative, financial and human resources management.

The research group leaders are the responsible for the coordination and management of each of the research groups of the Center. The leaders of the research groups, in coordination with the research director, establish the particular research topics and recruit researchers, post-docs, PhD students and technicians for their respective laboratories. At the same time they are the ultimate responsible to maintain the corresponding facilities and equipment operative and upgraded.

In addition to the previous personnel, CIC nanoGUNE incorporates a variable number of research and supporting staff:

• Researchers and laboratory technicians. They can be permanent researchers (senior and/or junior), highly qualified technicians, post-docs, and graduate students, and they will be incorporated gradually.
• Supporting staff. This staff section includes an infrastructure manager, a computer manager, and a direction and administrative secretary. Other support and management activities of the Center such as, for example, quality management, IPR, security will be, initially, taken over with the support of subcontracts.