David Naranjo, Doctor in Polymers and Biopolymers

Oct 19, 2026

Dr. David Naranjo, who held a doctoral grant from the Multiscale Science and Engineering Research Center of Barcelona and subsequently an FI SDUR - AGAUR Grant, defended his doctoral thesis last Friday, October 16th, at the EEBE.

David Naranjo, Doctor in Polymers and Biopolymers — David Naranjo during his PhD thesis presentation

On October 16, 2026, David Naranjo, a PhD student from the Biomaterials, Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering Research Group at the East Barcelona School of Engineering (EEBE, UPC), presented his doctoral thesis.

Dr. Naranjo presented his PhD thesis 'Multifunctional Hydrogels for Applications in Water Purification and (Bio)Sensors: A Theoretical and Experimental Approach', supervised by Dr. José Manuel García-Torres and Prof. Joan Torras (Innovation in Materials and Molecular Engineering Research Group, IMEM).

The thesis committee consisted of President Ignacio Sirés Sadornil (Universitat de Barcelona, UB), Secretary María del Mar Pérez Madrigal (Polytechnic University of Catalonia, UPC), and three Committee Members: Ángel José Moreno Segurado (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC), Matej Kanduč (Institut Jožef Stefan, IJS), and Alejandro Chamorro García (Monix Health AG).

During his PhD studies, David Naranjo completed a 3-month research stay (September–November 2025) in the Molecular Dynamics Research Group at the Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) of the University of Groningen (Netherlands). During this period, he developed his project 'Coarse-grained parameterization of biopolymer hydrogels functionalized with carbon quantum dots using the Martini force field'.