Prof. Dr. Rubén D. Costa

Academic Career and Research Areas

Prof. Costa (*1983) research spans from the design and preparation of protein-hybrid materials to the fabrication and optimization of optoelectronic devices for energy applications. The long-term goal is to progress sustainable optoelectronics.

Prof. Costa got his B.Sc/M.Sc in Chemistry from the U. Valencia (Spain) in 2006. His Ph.D. was performed at the U. Valencia (IcMol) where he graduated in 2010, obtaining several national and international awards. From 2011 to 2013, he was Humboldt Fellow at the U. Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) working on nanocarbon-based solar cells. In 2014, he became a Liebig Fellow heading the Hybrid Optoelectronic Materials and Devices Lab at FAU. In 2017, he moved his group at IMDEA Materials (Spain) and he further expanded it to the U. Waseda (Japan) as Associate Professor in 2018. His academic achievements include >180 scientific contributions and >35 awards/fellowships. 

Since 2020, Prof. Costa became full Professor for Biogenic Functional Materials at the TUM.

Awards

• RSC Horizon Prize of the Dalton Division (2022)
• RSC Materials Chemistry Division Horizon Prize: Stephanie L Kwolek Award (2021)
• FPdGi Research Award by the Spanish Royal Family (2020)
• European Innovator (Pioneer) Award by the MIT Technology Review (2017)
• ADUC award of the German society of chemists (2017)