Affiliation: Institut I.U. Física Aplicada a las Ciencias y las Tecnologías. University of Alicante

Fields or areas of research Optics , Lasers , Sensors , Wave guides , Holographic Systems

Marta Morales took her First-Cycle Degree in Optics and Optometry and two Master's degrees at the University of Alicante (UA): a) the Master's Degree in Advanced Optometry and Vision Science and b) the Master's Degree in Nanoscience and Molecular Nanotechnology. After completing her studies, she gained an FPI predoctoral fellowship at the UA Faculty of Science, in the Organic Electronics and Photonics group, where she undertook the PhD thesis entitled High performance thin films organic lasers for sensing applications.

She has also worked as a researcher with other internationally renowned centres and groups, such as the Organic Semiconductor Centre at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and the Nakamura group in Japan. These collaborations have resulted in several scientific articles published in the high-impact journals Nature Communications and Advanced Optical Materials and an international patent. Following her PhD studies, she secured a post-doctoral contract (funded jointly by the Castile and León Regional Government - European Regional Development Fund) with the internationally recognised Laser Applications and Photonics group (ALF-USAL).

Since January 2019 she has been a member of the Holography and Optical Processing research group and the UA Institute of Physics Applied to Science and Technology, where she directs a research project funded by the Valencia Region Government (GenT).

The lines of research she has worked on were related to laser technologies, developed from an experimental perspective in different optics labs. Highlights among those lines of research include: 1) study of organic materials as active media for laser emission and application of DFB lasers as sensors and biosensors; 2) inscription of waveguide-type photonic devices inside transparent crystals and spatial-temporal characterisation of femtosecond pulses through methods based on spectral interferometry; 3) optimisation of holographic systems based on environmentally compatible photopolymers for different applications.