Omar Azzaroni, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
Omar Azzaroni studied chemistry at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP) (Argentina), receiving his PhD in 2004. His postdoctoral studies were carried out at the University of Cambridge (UK) (2004-2006) and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (Germany) (2007). He was then appointed as Max Planck Partner Group leader from 2009 until 2013. He has served as Vice-Director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas (INIFTA) (2012-2015). He is currently a fellow of CONICET and Professor of Physical Chemistry at UNLP. He is particularly interested in designing and building soft materials and devices with optimized properties and functions. His current research is directed towards the integration of functional molecular systems into devices and platforms for different biosensing purposes. The devices of current interest are solid-state nanochannels, graphene-based field-effect transistors, organic electrochemical transistors and bioelectrochemical sensors.
Carlos D. Garcia, Clemson University, United States
Carlos D. Garcia received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the National University of Cordoba (Argentina) in 1996 and 2001, respectively. From 2002 to 2004, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Mississippi State University and Colorado State University under the supervision of Dr. W. Wilson and Dr. Charles Henry, respectively. He developed his independent career at The University of Texas at San Antonio and joined Clemson University in August 2015. His group is focused on the study of interactions of proteins with nanostructured surfaces and their use in analytical chemistry. Additionally, he is developing microfluidic devices to monitor biologically active compounds. Carlos is engaged in various professional activities, which provide opportunities to recruit graduate students and to inform the public about the chemistry program at Clemson. These include the presentation of seminars at colleges and universities, and the presentation of posters at national and international meetings. At present, Carlos directs the thesis research of two chemistry graduate students (Ph.D. program). He also has a substantial research program composed of undergraduate students, which complements and supports the research of graduate students. The outcomes of the research activities have been presented and recognized at national and international scientific meetings and are regularly published in peer-refereed journals, all of which have students as coauthors. His research has received support from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Agency for Space and Aeronautics, and the Office of Naval Research.
