Members

José Juan Marrero-Tellado obtained his BSc (1983) in Chemistry from the University of La Laguna (ULL) and his MSc (1984) from the ULL and Instituto de Productos Naturales del CSIC (IPN-CSIC) under the supervision of Profs. Ernesto Suárez and Rosendo Hernández. His MSc thesis was focused on studies of alcoxy radical fragmentation reactions. In 1988, he received his PhD (Outstanding Doctoral Award) from IPN-CSIC-ULL. From 1989 to 1991 he carried out a post-doctoral stay at the University of Oxford (UK) in the group of Prof. Sir J. Baldwin working on alkylation reactions of alpha and beta-bicyclic lactams, studies on the face selection of the process and Cieplak effect. In 1997, he became Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry at ULL. He has been Visiting Professor at University of Stratchclyde working with catalytic antibodies in the group of Prof. C. J. Suckling (Glasgow), at Kekulé-Institut für Organische Chemie und Biochemie Universität, working on the synthesis of molecular knots in the group of Prof. F. Vögtle (Germany), and at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in the group of Prof. F. Diederich working on the amphiphilic dendrimers as vectors for gene therapy (Switzerland). His research interest is in functional materials.

Antonio Diego Lozano-Gorrín obtained his PhD in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at Universidad de La Laguna (ULL) in Spain in the field of Solid State Inorganic Materials Chemistry in 2003. The objective of it was the search for materials with interesting magnetic properties as spin-glass behavior as well as the study of their structures by means of X-ray diffraction. He carried out a post-doctoral stay in the Department of Chemistry and the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research at McMaster University in Canada from 2004 to 2007. From 2008 to 2010 he got a position as a support manager for the X-ray diffraction facilities at ULL. From 2010 on he has been a researcher at different groups at ULL where he prepared, characterized, and studied optical properties, among others, of different nanomaterials. During those years of research he has been a frequent user of neutron and synchrotron facilities at different locations: ILL, ESRF and LLB in France, Diamond Light Source in Great Britain, Chalk River Laboratories in Canada and Los Alamos National Lab in the USA. In 2018 he became a professor at Universidad de La Laguna.

Sebastian Bonardd (Chile, 1991) holds a PhD in Chemistry and a PhD in Renewable Materials Engineering, both obtained in 2019 through a cotutelle and double-degree doctoral fellowship. This program enabled him to conduct his doctoral research at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Chile) and the University of the Basque Country (Spain), where he developed novel high-dielectric polymer materials for use as dielectric media in energy storage applications. In 2019, he was awarded his first postdoctoral position at the Center of Applied Nanotechnology (CNAP, Chile), where he broadened his research to include the use and modification of waste-derived biopolymers for electronic and environmental applications (2019 – 2021). The latter focused on contaminant degradation, hydrogen production, and CO₂ capture and conversion strategies enabled by the incorporation of catalytic nanostructures. In 2021, he returned to Spain after being awarded the prestigious Juan de la Cierva–Formación fellowship. He joined the AFM-NANO group at the Universidad de La Laguna (ULL, Tenerife, Spain) under the supervision of Dr. David Díaz, starting a fruitful collaboration (2021 – 2023). There, he continued developing polymer systems for energy and environmental remediation, while expanding his research towards the design of stimuli-responsive and self-healing soft materials, including supramolecular assemblies and polymeric gels, which were explored as drug-delivery systems and as media for photocatalyzed organic transformations. After successfully completing this position, he moved to San Sebastián, Spain, where he joined the Polymer & Soft-Matter group at the Materials Physics Center as a postdoctoral researcher (2023–2025). During this period, he strengthened his research on energy storage materials by introducing novel polymeric designs and advanced characterization strategies based on spectroscopic and scattering techniques. In parallel, he initiated research on the preparation and study of functional covalent adaptable networks. In October 2025, he returned to Tenerife, Spain, after being awarded a Viera y Clavijo research fellowship, rejoining the AFM-NANO group. He currently carries out his research and teaching activities as a member of the Department of Organic Chemistry and the Instituto Universitario de Bio-Orgánica Antonio González (IUBO-AG) at the Universidad de La Laguna. His research strategy is based on an interdisciplinary approach aimed at developing novel functional bio-based polymer materials. To this end, he combines tools from organic chemistry and chemical physics to design, understand, and apply these materials across a range of fields where they can contribute to advancing the current state of the art.

Agoney González Cabrera was born in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain, in 1998. He has graduated as a chemist in the Degree in Chemistry at the University of La Laguna in 2023 and in 2025 he obtained the Master’s Degree in Chemistry with specialization in Organic Chemistry at the same university. At present, he is a PhD student in the PhD Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of La Laguna. His PhD Thesis, supervised by Dr. David Díaz Díaz (Department of Organic Chemistry; ULL), is based on the use of sponge mimetic tubules to investigate the origins of multicellular life and in bioengineering applications.

Aarón Baz Figueroa was born Aarón Baz Figueroa was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, in 1996. He graduated as a pharmacist with the Degree in Pharmacy from the University of La Laguna in 2019 and in 2023 he obtained the Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Dermocosmetics at the University of Barcelona. He is currently a PhD student in the Doctoral Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of La Laguna. His Doctoral Thesis, directed by Dr. David Díaz Díaz (Department of Organic Chemistry; ULL), is based on the use of soft stimuli-responsive materials for biomedical applications.

José Ignacio Hernández García was born in San Cristobal de La Laguna, Spain, in 1998. He obtained his Chemistry Degree in the University of La Laguna in 2021. Also, he has obtained the Master’s degree in Master of Chemistry, getting the specialization in Organic Chemistry in 2022. Currently, he is working on his PhD thesis in the Doctoral program of Chemistry and Chemical engineering at the Universidad de La Laguna. His doctoral thesis is directed by Dr. David Díaz Díaz and Dr. Sebastian Bonardd, which is mainly focused in the synthesis and preparation of materials for the CO2 adsorption.

Cristina del Mar García Martín was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, in 1998. She has graduated as a chemist in the Degree in Chemistry at the University of La Laguna in 2022 and in 2023 she obtained the Master’s Degree in food safety and quality at the same university. Currently, she is a PhD student in the PhD Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the University of La Laguna. Her PhD Thesis, supervised by Dr. David Díaz Díaz (Department of Organic Chemistry; ULL) is focused on the valorization of bio-resources.

Andrea Montón Vicente was born in in Madrid, Spain, in 1997. She obtained a BSc degree in Chemistry at the Complutense University of Madrid in 2020 and in 2021 she obtained a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry at the same university. Since 2022, she is working as a researcher in Arquimea Research Center while pursuing a PhD in collaboration with the University of La Laguna within the PhD Program in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Her PhD Thesis, supervised by Prof. David Díaz Díaz (Department of Organic Chemistry; ULL), is based on the optimisation of the performance of aptamer-based electrochemical sensors through the development of organic compounds that improve the performance required for the continuous and real-time monitoring of physiologically relevant biomarkers in biofluids.

Diego Walter Allgaier Díaz was born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, in 1992. He has graduated as an environmentalogist in the Degree of Environmental Sciences at the Universidad de La Laguna in 2017 and subsequently obtained the Master’s Degree in Pollution, Toxicology and Environmental Health from the Universitat de Valencia in 2018, within the specialty of environmental toxicology. He also has a Certificate of Higher Education in Environmental Chemistry. Currently, he is a PhD student in the Doctoral Program of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the Universidad de La Laguna. His Doctoral Thesis, directed by Dr. Juan Ayala Díaz (Department of Analytical Chemistry; ULL) and Dr. David Díaz Díaz, is centered on the preparation, chemical modification and characterization of hydrogels and biopolymers, as well as their incorporation into analytical chemistry strategies.