Dr Rafael Mestre PhD, MSc, BSc
Research Fellow
Rafael Mestre is a Research Fellow on the ‘Rebooting Democracy’ project.
I joined the University of Southampton in January 2021. I possess a multidisciplinary background in Physics, Nanoscience, Tissue Engineering, 3D Bioprinting and Bio-hybrid Robotics. I hold a Bachelor’s Degree by the University of Granada, an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology by KU Leuven and Université Grenoble Alpes and a PhD in Nanoscience by the University of Barcelona.
Prior to joining the University of Southampton, I worked in a wide scope of projects as an intern at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Berlin and CEA Leti in Grenoble, as a predoctoral researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona, and as a visiting researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). My PhD research was focused on the development of bio-hybrid systems by combining advances from the fields of bioengineering, material science, physics and nanotechnology, with a focus on theoretical modelling and validation, and analytical characterization. My work has been published in multidisciplinary journals and I have presented in international conferences. I have a strong commitment to science dissemination, and I have participated in outreach activities for all kinds of audiences in different formats.
I employ analytical and programming skills to solve complex inter-disciplinary problems with an open-minded and collaborative approach. On the ‘Rebooting Democracy’ project, I work on argumentation mining to try and figure out how people debate and feel about certain political issues through natural language processing, bridging fields like computer science, political science and argumentation.
Previous Employment:
Predoctoral researcher – Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) – Barcelona (2016 – 2021)
Academic Qualifications:
PhD in Nanoscience – University of Barcelona (UB) – 2020
Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology – KU Leuven and Université Grenoble Alpes – 2016
BSc in Physics – University of Granada (UGR) – 2014