Dr. Amaia Agirre

Amaia Agirre Etxebarria earned her BS (2004) in Chemistry from EHU 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 EHU 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. 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).

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