ERDF Technology Access Consultant in the Chemistry Department under the Cumbria Innovations Platform (CUSP) project; helping SMEs to get access to technical facilities, expertise, and knowledge in Chemistry, Engineering and Physics at Lancaster University. The project aims to accelerate innovation in Cumbrian business.
Miriam Ferrer Huerta holds a first class BSc (Hons) in Chemistry, specialising in Physical Chemistry, and a MSc in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the University of Barcelona (UB), with the thesis title “Design and synthesis of chiral alpha-helical peptides for Spintronics applications” under the supervision of Prof Fausto Sanz Carrasco and Dr Ismael Diez-Perez (Nanoprobes & Nanoswitches Group, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and UB). Through this project, chiral alpha-helical peptides were synthesised and the charge transport properties of in situ built single-molecule wires were characterized at a molecular level by using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) break-junction techniques (Molecular Electronics). During her Masters project, she specialised in organic chemistry synthesis, purification and structural determination of peptides under the supervision of Prof Ernest Giralt and Dr Meritxell Teixidó in the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB).
Afterwards, she joined the Engineering Dept at Lancaster University, where she is currently pursuing a PhD in Nanoelectrochemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof Coli n Boxall. Thi s PhD project was in collaboration with NanoFlex Ltd and funded by the ERDF and the Centre for Global Eco-Innovation (CGE). The project involves fabrication of graphene nanoelectrodes, physical and chemical characterisation, and electron transfer kinetics studies of graphene nanoelectrodes for environmental monitoring (electrochemical sensors) and energy storage (supercapacitors).