The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAI, for its acronym in Spanish) has acknowledged the merits, research trajectory, and contribution to engineering of the professor of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) Gemma Herranz Sánchez-Cosgalla, with the award of one of the ‘Juan López de Peñalver' medals to young researchers in its 2017 edition.

The institution has awarded Professor Herranz for "her contribution to the injection molding of metallic and ceramic powders in the field of materials engineering." In addition to a high technology transfer to the productive sector, the RAI has assessed that she has "conducted for the first time the sintering of metallic dust using concentrated solar energy since until now, this process had only been described for ceramics."

Gemma Herranz is a Professor in the Department of Applied Engineering and Project Engineering, and she currently teaches at the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering at the Campus of Ciudad Real. Her lines of research are related to the technologies of powder processing, powder metallurgical technology and, in particular, to the processing by advanced techniques such as the Powder Injection Molding (PIM). Professor Herranz is responsible for the PIM Research Laboratory of the regional University, a benchmark in training graduates in this technology and in which numerous technology transfer projects—with Spanish companies—are conducted. Moreover, the PIM Research Laboratory collaborates with centers and universities of different points of Europe.

Professor Herranz picked up the award last November 22nd, at the ceremony held at the headquarters of the Royal Academy of Engineering, in Madrid. During that event, the prize and the 'Agustín de Betancourt' medals were also awarded. The Professor is grateful for this award that acknowledges "the enormous effort of creating a reference laboratory in a technology that does not exist in Castilla-La Mancha and demonstrates that we have many possibilities to create seeds of industrial specialization in the region." Likewise, according to Herranz, such medal acknowledges "the deep dedication" to her work, "to the illusion put in the creation of a research group specialized in a cutting-edge technology", "to the role that female researchers and professors in the engineering world perform, in which all factors are not balanced" and "to the huge effort to reconcile my professional and family life, trying to combine efforts and not unbalance my role as a woman, researcher, and mother."

More than 120 applications have been submitted for the 'Juan López de Peñalver' award, aimed at researchers or professionals under 40 who have made original and relevant contributions in any of the fields of engineering. In this edition, the award went to the aeronautical engineers—of the company EADS CASA-AIRBUS—Javier Vadeolmos Traba and Martín Espinosa Sánchez. Furthermore, together with the UCLM Professor Gemma Herranz, the Chemistry Professor at the University of Valladolid, Raúl Muñoz Torre; the telecommunication Professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Álvaro García Martín; the forest engineer and Professor of the University of Vigo, Belén Riveiro; and the graduate in Environmental Sciences and researcher at the University of Cantabria, Jonathan Albo Sánchez, have also been distinguished with a medal.

Office of Communications, UCLM. Ciudad Real, November 22, 2017