Vega-Cantú, Yadira Itzel

After B.S. and Masters degrees in Chemistry at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Yadira I. Vega-Cantú joined the Graduate Program at the Department of Chemistry at Rice University, in Houston TX. There she studied hybrid materials based on polyacrylates and titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Then, in a joint project with Halliburton Energy Services she studied the degradation of nitrile rubber (NBR) seals in oil extraction wells and developed methods to avoid their failure. This doctoral thesis received the Harry B. Weiser award for Excellence in Graduate Research from the Chemistry Department of Rice. After receiving her Ph.D. in 2002 she continued developing joint projects on oil extraction fluids for Halliburton and as a postdoc in Billups group at Rice developed in situ polymerization methods for carbon nanotube composites. In 2005 she joined the Advanced Materials Department at Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica (IPICYT) in San Luis Potosí México, as a Research Professor. There she continued working on nanotube composites and on the functionalization of carbon nanotubes. She was named "Profesor Investigador Titular A" in 2010, in that same year she was the Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Nanosciences and Nanotechnology. At IPICYT she also developed pioneering work on longitudinal cutting of carbon nanotubes to obtain graphene nanoribbons. In 2012 Dr. Vega-Cantú joined the Graduate Program in Materials Science and the Department of Fundamental Chemistry as a Visiting Professor at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE) in Recife, Brazil. There, she developed carbon nanotube composites for photoluminescent nanolatex and electromechanical actuator applications. In 2016 Dr. Vega-Cantú moved back to México, as a Professor at the School of Engineering and Sciences at Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey, She is a Faculty member of the Graduate Program in Materials Science at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Brazil Dr. Vega-Cantú's research interests focus on the chemistry of carbon nanomaterials, the synthesis and applications of photoluminescent carbon-based nanocomposites and the synthesis and applications of nanomaterials. At Tec de Monterrey, she teaches at the Nanotechnology Engineering undergraduate program, and at the Nanotechnology graduate program; and has developed and implemented several Nanotechnology courses for the new Tec21 teaching model. She has advised 5 doctoral, 6 master and several undergraduate thesis projects. She is a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and at Tec de Monterrey, and the faculty advisor of the ACS Student Chapter.