Education

Amaia Agirre Etxebarria earned her BS (2004) in Chemistry from the University of The Basque Country in Donostia. She spent the last year of her studies (2003-2004) at the University of Oulu (Finland) with the Erasmus program. When she came back from Finland she started her PhD in the Chemical Engineering Group (Polymat) at the University of the Basque Country in Donostia. The research of her thesis was mainly focused on the synthesis and characterization of waterborne pressure sensitive adhesives (PSA-s) presenting improved adhesion to low energy surfaces. In order to complement her research and get the Doctor Europeus degree she spent a couple of months at the Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie des Polymères et the Milieux Dispersés (ESPCI, Paris) and one month at the Department of Physics and Surrey Materials Institute in the University of Surrey (UK). Finally, she earned her PhD from the University of the Basque Country on 2010. During her PhD she attended different courses: "Emulsion polymerization process course organized by Polymat at the University of the Basque Country (September 2005), "Adhesives and Paints Course" teaching in progress program UNED University (June 2006), "Seminar on Modulated DSC and TOPEM" organized by Mettler Toledo (Donostia, May 2009), Introduction to Electron Microscopy and Confocal Microscopy Course" organized by the University of the Basque Country (Leioa, June 2009) and "Master in Light Scattering" organized by Wyatt Technology in Santa Barbara (CA) (August 2009). She had the chance to present part of her thesis work in an international meeting as well as in some internal Liaison Meetings: A poster presentation "Adhesives for Low Energy Surfaces" in the 6th Industrial Liaison Program (ILP) meeting (September 2006), two oral presentations "Adhesives for Low Energy Surfaces" and "Miniemulsion vs Conventional Emulsion. Effect on the Polymer Microstructure" in the 7th ILP meeting (September 2007), a poster presentation "New waterborne Polymer Dispersions for Improving Adhesion to Low Energy Surfaces" in the congress held in Prague "Polymer Colloids: From Design to Biomedical and Industrial Applications" (July 2008), an oral presentation "Adhesives for Low Energy Surfaces" in the 8th ILP meeting and another oral presentation "Semicrystalline Waterborne Pressure Sensitive Adhesives" in the 9th ILP program.

Research

She has a broad knowledge and experience on polymer synthesis (specially in emulsion and miniemulsion polymerization) and characterization and she is familiar with a large number of characterization equipments: Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS, particle size analyzer), Turbiscan Lab (stability analysis and characterization of concentrated dispersions), goniometer (contact angle and interfacial tension characterization), tensiometer (Sigma 70 KSV), conductimeter, Multi Angle Light Scattering, (MALS; characterization of absolute molecular weights), rheometer, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Instron (tensile strength tests)… Her knowledge and experience on adhesive film testing (tack, shear resistance and peel resistance experiments) is also quite broad. Since 2009 she is working as a research technician in the Chemical Engineering Group (Polymat) at the University of the Basque Country and she is the person specialized and in charge of all the chromatographic equipments in the group: Gas Chromatography (GC), Size exclusion chromatography (SEC), High performance chromatograpy (HPLC) and Capillary hydrodynamic fractionation (CHDF).

Publications