INMA researcher María José Martínez Pérez receives the 2025 National Research Award
The Huesca-born doctor of physics has been awarded in the Young Researchers category (up to 40 years old) for her original contributions in the field of magnetism, superconductivity and quantum computing
A senior scientist at the CSIC’s Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA) since 2017, she is the first person from Aragon to receive this award
Zaragoza, 29 September 2025. María José Martínez Pérez, a researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has received the 2025 National Research Award for Young People, awarded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, for her contributions in the field of magnetism, especially superconductivity at the nanometric scale, from an original and unusual perspective. The physicist from Huesca, who works at the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA) – a joint institute of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Zaragoza – thus becomes the first researcher from Aragon to win this prestigious award, which recognises her career in advanced scientific instrumentation, her decisive contribution to infrastructure and technology transfer, and her scientific independence.
‘This type of recognition is the result of the work of many people, since research is a community effort, and also involves a certain amount of luck,’ humbly acknowledges Martínez Pérez, who won the Felisa Martín Bravo award in the field of Physical Sciences of Materials and the Earth. ‘In addition, they provide extra visibility for my research and my field, particularly in 2025, which has been declared the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology. It is taking off strongly and it is important to invest in it,’ she points out. ‘Nor should we forget that awards help us as researchers to access funding for our projects,’ she adds enthusiastically. ‘This award is a source of pride for both the institution and the scientific community in Aragon,’ said Mª Jesús Lázaro, CSIC delegate in Aragon. ‘The Ministry’s recognition of María José Martínez’s work is yet another example of the CSIC’s firm commitment to research excellence.’ Lázaro also highlighted the importance of Martínez’s work in a strategic discipline such as quantum physics, which will be key in the future and which places the CSIC and Aragon at the forefront of scientific and technological development.
Born in Huesca in 1983, Martínez Pérez holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Zaragoza. After defending her thesis in 2011, she spent three years at the NEST (National Enterprise for nanoScience and nanoTechnology) laboratory at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and the Italian National Research Council. She then moved to the German University of Tübingen with a Humboldt research grant until returning to Spain in 2017 with a permanent contract at the Aragonese Agency for Research and Development (ARAID), based at the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA), CSIC-UNIZAR. Martínez Pérez is currently a senior scientist at the CSIC at the same institute.
In addition to this recognition, she has also received the Aragón Investiga Award for young researchers (2017), a Leonardo grant from the BBVA Foundation (2019) and the Young Researcher Award in Experimental Physics (2020) from the Royal Spanish Physics Society and the BBVA Foundation. In the summer of that year, she was awarded a Starting Grant of €1.8 million from the European Research Council for the study of quantum properties in magnetic excitations and their possible applications in the field of quantum technologies.
The Ministry has also awarded four other CSIC researchers: Ignacio De la Torre Sainz (Ramón Menéndez Pidal category, in Humanities), Ana María Traveset Vilaginés (Alejandro Malaspina category, in Natural Resource Sciences and Technologies), María Soledad Martín González (Juan de la Cierva category, in Knowledge Transfer) and Jesús Campos Manzano (María Teresa Toral category, in Chemical Science and Technology). The awards ceremony will be held next spring.
About the CSIC
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the largest public research institution in Spain and one of the leading research bodies in Europe. Attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, its fundamental objective is to develop and promote research for the benefit of scientific and technological progress, for which it is open to collaboration with Spanish and foreign entities. The driving force behind its research is its 121 institutes and 3 national centres, distributed throughout all the autonomous communities, where more than 16,000 people work. CSIC researchers represent 6% of the personnel dedicated to research and development in Spain and generate approximately 20% of the country’s scientific output. Currently, the CSIC is responsible for 45% of the patents applied for by the public sector in Spain and since 2004 has created more than fifty technology-based companies.
The CSIC delegation in Aragon is the Agency’s institutional representative in the region, with its delegate, María Jesús Lázaro Elorri, acting as the liaison with public and private institutions in Aragon. In Aragon, the CSIC has a staff of more than 600 people spread across its five institutes: the Aula Dei Experimental Station (EEAD), the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE) and the Institute of Carbon Chemistry (ICB) – belonging to the CSIC – and the Aragon Nanoscience and Materials Institute (INMA) and the Institute of Chemical Synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis (ISQCH) – joint institutes of the CSIC and the University of Zaragoza. In addition, the CSIC in Aragon has a headquarters and staff at the national centre IGME, the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain.
30-09-2025
