María Cuartero, born in Murcia and head of the UCAM-SENS Research Unit, has a large number of publications in scientific journals of international impact, as well as a brilliant curriculum, merits that have earned her the 2022 Young Investigator Award, according to the Chemosensors journal.

This award consolidates her as a world reference in the area of sensor chemistry and highlights her career as a young researcher, with an outstanding ability to secure funding for her own projects, reaching international relevance and being published in the most important scientific journals. This was the case with the January issue of ACS Sensors, one of the best in the world, specialised in analytical chemistry and sensors, whose cover featured her research to develop a wireless patch to monitor patients in real time.

María Cuartero was grateful ‘for this recognition which, in previous editions, has gone to professors with a great career’ and also thanked Gastón Crespo, co-founder of UCAM SENS, and Joaquín Ortuño, her doctoral thesis supervisor, for nominating her for this award.

Cuartero has received other notable awards in recent months, such as the Analyst journal's 2022 Emerging Investigator Lectureship, an annual prize given to a researcher who has held a PhD for less than 10 years and who makes a significant contribution to the field of analytical chemistry. She has also been appointed Chair Elect of Division 1 of the International Society of Electrochemistry, editor of the prestigious scientific journal Analytical Chemistry, of the American Chemical Society, and she is a full member of the Academia Joven de España (Spanish Young Academy).

Thanks to their scientific work developed mainly at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden, María Cuartero and Gastón Crespo joined the Universidad Católica de Murcia last November to lead UCAM-SENS, the first sensor chemistry unit in Europe. This was created at the initiative of the UCAM founder, José Luis Mendoza, who personally led the incorporation of the two scientists. Cuartero and Crespo lead a talented team of researchers in this unit, located in the UCAM HiTech incubator for high technology in health, sport and food.