Marianella Hernández SantanaDr. Marianella Hernández Santana is a Materials Engineer (Simon Bolivar University, Caracas, Venezuela) with an MSc in Macromolecular Physical-Chemistry (Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France) and a PhD in Chemical Sciences (Complutense Univerity of Madrid, Madrid, Spain). As a Marie Curie Fellow, she joined Prof. van der Zwaag's group (Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands) where she developed self-healing elastomers. Later, she returned to Spain and joined the Institute of Polymer Science and Technology (ICTP, CSIC). In 2019, she was awarded a Ramon y Cajal position, the most prestigious postdoctoral position in Spain. Currently, she is a Tenured Scientist at ICTP, CSIC, leading a pioneering research line in the development of self-healing elastomers. She is the Director of the International Rubber Technology Network (RITC) of the Latin American Society of Rubber Technology (SLTC), which brings together companies, universities, technological centers, and research institutes specializing in rubber in Ibero-America. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Spanish Association of Composite Materials (AEMAC) and chair of the International Conference on Self-Healing Materials (ICSHM 2024). Her research focuses on the implementation of circular economy principles, promoting the use of self-healing materials and bio-based rubber compounds. Read More Read Less