Deputy Director
José M. Torralba (1959, Melilla, married, two children), is Metallurgical Engineer (1982, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid –UPM-), Dr. Eng. (1985, UPM), Armament and Material Engineer (1986, Escuela Politécnica Superior del Ejército –EPSE-), Dr. Eng. (1994, EPSE). In 1987 he got the position of Associate Professor at the School of Mines (UPM) till 1996 when he got the position of Professor of MSE at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. He has been Head of the Department in 1999-2000, Vice-rector for Academics Infrastructures (2000-2004), Vice-rector for Research and Innovation (2004-2006). Today he is the Deputy Director of IMDEA Materials.
His main scientific-technical field of interest is Powder Metallurgy. Since 1982 he has worked with different sintered materials families: 1) Low alloyed steels, development of new alloying systems to improve sintering behavior and the structural properties, 2) Special steels (stainless and high speed steels), through the promotion of the performance in terms of corrosion or/and wear, and 3) metal matrix composites, including different matrix materials as aluminum, iron or high speed steel. In last years his research group has been involved in projects related new technologies like mechanical alloying, metal injection moulding or spray pirolysis to develop nanoparticles. He has published more than 350 scientific papers (131 in the JCR with more than 500 cites), has supervised 14 PhD thesis and 35 Diploma Thesis. In 1999 has received the "Professor Fryderyk Staub" Award by the Silesian University of Technology (Poland), in 2001 the Honoris Causa Doctorate by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (Rumania), in 2005 the Slovak Academy of Sciences Award and in 2007 Honoris Causa Doctorate by the University of Craiova (Rumania).
He has participated in more than 50 international scientific committees of International Conferences and being Chairman of 6 of them. He has been involved in 32 competitive projects (in regional, national and international frameworks), being the main researcher in 20. He has managed several research grants with industries, including the Höganäs Chair in Powder Metallurgy and several grants with AMES SA. He is Regional Editor (for Europe) of Journal of Materials Processing Technology and Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering.