Doctoral thesis success: Laura Ramos Rivera
Laura Ramos Rivera successfully defended her doctoral thesis on 30th October 2019 at the Institute of Biomaterials. Laura carried out her thesis (Dr.-Ing.) under academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, with a fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) <https://www.daad.de/de/> and COLCIENCIAS, the Colombian Research Agency. Her project was in the field of Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of zein-bioactive glass composite coatings exhibiting bioactivity and antibacterial effects, which involved adapting the EPD technique to produce robust coatings of the vegetal protein zein, as an alternative biocompatible material for biomedical coatings. Prof. Sanna Virtanen (FAU Institute of Surface Science and Corrosion), Prof. Oliver Friedrich (FAU Institute of Medical Biotechnology), Prof. Dominique DeLigny (Chair for Glass and Ceramics, FAU) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board. Prof. Boccaccini commented on the innovative research work carried out by Laura, highlighting that she also started the combination of EPD and electrospinning (two methods available in our Institute) to advance the fabrication of biomedical coatings with suitable topography and bioactivity. Laura`s research has resulted in publications [1, 2] and other papers are being finalized for publication. We congratulate Laura for achieving her Dr.-Ing. degree and wish her all the best in her future career.
[1] L. Ramos-Rivera, et al., Formation of Zein/Bioactive Glass Layers Using Electrophoretic Deposition Technique, ECS Trans. 82 (2018) 73-80.
[2] N. Meyer, L. Ramos-Rivera, et al., Bioactive and Antibacterial Coatings Based on Zein/Bioactive Glass Composites by Electrophoretic Deposition, Coatings 8 (2018) 27.
