Teresa Lopez-Leon

Teresa Lopez-Leon is a Research Scientist of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and of the École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI Paris), UMR 7083 Gulliver. She got her B Sc, M Sc and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Granada (Spain). She pursued her career as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University (US), Georgia Institute of Technology (US) and University of Montpellier II (France).
Her research has focused on the physics of soft materials, including colloidal suspensions, gels, liquid crystals and emulsion droplets, with the aim of exploring the connection between microscopic order and macroscopic properties.

Her current research focuses on studying the effect of confinement and curvature on the properties of liquid crystals and active matter. In particular, she is interested in understanding and controlling the formation of topological defects in spherical liquid crystal shells.

Her final goal is to exploit these defects for producing patchy particles, capable to generate, by self-assembly, novel materials that may have interesting applications, such as metamaterials or photonic crystals. APS Physics Q&A

Teresa received the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2019