Maria Victoria (Marivi) Fernández-Serra is a Spanish condensed matter physicist known for her research applying

density functional theory Density functional theory (DFT) is a computational quantum mechanical modelling method used in physics, chemistry and materials science to investigate the electronic structure (or nuclear structure) (principally the ground state) of many-body ...

to the structure and dynamics of

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

. Other topics in her research include supercomputer simulations of the quantum-mechanical behavior of liquid-metal interfaces, the design of

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

-based

nanowire file:SnSe@SWCNT.jpg, upright=1.2, Crystalline 2×2-atom tin selenide nanowire grown inside a single-wall carbon nanotube (tube diameter ≈1 nm). A nanowire is a nanostructure in the form of a wire with the diameter of the order of a nanometre ( ...

s, and the development of sensors for detecting

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

. She is a professor of physics and astronomy at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

Education and career

Fernández-Serra earned a bachelor's and master's degree in 1999 and 2001, respectively, at the

Autonomous University of Madrid The Autonomous University of Madrid (; UAM), commonly known as la Autónoma, is a Spanish public university located in Madrid, Spain. The university was founded in 1968 by royal decree. UAM is widely respected as one of the most prestigious univ ...

. She completed her Ph.D. in 2004 at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. After postdoctoral research in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, France, at

Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 (, UCBL) is one of the three public universities of Lyon, France. It is named after the French physiologist Claude Bernard and specialises in science and technology, medicine, and sports science. It was establis ...

and

Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, she joined the Stony Brook University faculty in 2008.

Recognition

Fernández-Serra was a winner of the Early Career Award of the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

, in 2010. In 2020, Fernández-Serra was named a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

(APS), after a nomination from the APS Division of Computational Physics, "for extending density functional theory in groundbreaking work on the structure and dynamics of complex materials, and especially for improving understanding of the electronic structure of water, including ice and interfaces".

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez-Serra, Marivi Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Spanish physicists Spanish women physicists Autonomous University of Madrid alumni Alumni of the University of Cambridge Stony Brook University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society