Luna-Barcenas, J. Gabriel

Gabriel Luna-Barcenas was born in Guanajuato, Mexico, where he studied for his B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering at Instituto Tecnologico de Celaya. In 1991, he obtained his M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the same institute. During the fall of 1991, he entered The University of Texas at Austin to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1997 and immediately took a postdoctoral position at Princeton University. In early 2000, he moved to Mexico to work for the R&D Center of Grupo Resistol near Mexico City. In late 2000, he was appointed Professor of Materials Science at Cinvestav Queretaro. Since then, he has worked on polymer/biopolymer nanocomposites for biomedical applications, including using metal nanoparticles (Ag, Au) for cartilage, skin, and bone regeneration. His interests also include the development of sensors for cation and anion detection using nanotechnology and synthesizing smart materials for drug delivery systems using ionic liquids and nanoemulsions. He has published more than 220 peer-reviewed papers, including 3 international patents and the supervision of 25 Ph.D. theses. He has given lectures and seminars in the US, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, the UK, France, and Italy. He also works with the Mexican industry in new formulations of emulsions and nanoemulsions for health and the environment. His innovative work on Deep-Eutectic-Solvents was chosen as the prestigious cover for the Journal of Polymer Science. Part A: Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry A and Journal of Materials Chemistry B. His works have been cited more than 6,000 times (H=40). He has chaired the US-Mexico meetings (Macromex) on New Advances in Polymer Science with the Mexican Polymer Society and the Polymer Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (2008, 2011, and 2014). He has co-organized scientific meetings with ARO and ONRG and received funding from those agencies. During the academic year 2021-2022, he was appointed a Fulbright Visiting Scientist in the USA and holds National Investigator-SNI 3 (highest in Mexico). He is the current President of the Mexican Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Network. Recently, Dr. Luna-Barcenas has joined the Institute of Advanced Materials for Sustainable Manufacturing of Tecnologico de Monterrey as Distinguished Faculty of Excellence in Biomaterials. For more information, please email him at gabriel.luna@tec.mx