Jon Ustarroz

Jon Ustarroz got a Master in Materials Engineering in 2007 by the Universidad de Navarra (Spain), a Master in Innovation and Technology Management by the Universidad de Deusto (Spain) in 2008 and a PhD in engineering sciences from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in 2013. After a FWO postdoctoral fellowship and one-year postdoctoral position in the University of Warwick (U.K.), he was awarded with the Electrodeposition Division Early Career Investigator Award by The Electrochemical Society (ECS) in 2018. During the same year, he became assistant professor at the Chemistry of Surfaces, Interfaces and Nanomaterials group (ChemSIN), of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and part-time research professor at the SURF group of the VUB. Since 2021, Jon is associate professor at the ULB, where he teaches the courses on Analytical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry and Electrochemistry.

Jon’s research is carried out in collaboration between both ChemSIN (ULB) and SURF (VUB). His focus is on electrodeposition and characterization of nanomaterials for electrochemical energy conversion, nanoscale resolved electrochemistry, electrochemical nucleation and growth, electrochemical dissolution, and electrochemistry in non-aqueous media. His approach is based on a combination of high-throughput nanoscale resolved local electrochemistry, high-resolution surface characterization and data science. This is possible by using Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy (SECCM), where the reaction cell is confined to the meniscus formed between a nanopipette and a substrate, correlated in identical location with ex-situ and in-situ microscopic/spectroscopic surface analysis, in-situ electrochemical TEM, and multi-scale numerical modelling strategies.

In October 2021, Jon is (has been) main promotor of 3 postdocs (3 ongoing), 6 PhD students (3 finished, 3 ongoing) and 11 master students (8 finished, 3 ongoing). He currently leads or participates in several Flemish (FWO), Walloon (FNRS) and European projects, and he is (has been) involved in the organization of various symposia in international conferences (JIE 2021, EUROCORR 2020, Nucleation & Growth symposium in 237^th ECS meeting, EMNT 2016).