Dr. Scott G. Mitchell is a Tenured Senior Scientist at the Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón (INMA) in Zaragoza (Spain). The INMA is a mixed research institute between the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR).

He graduated from The University of Glasgow (U.K.) in 2005 with an M.Sci.(Hons) in Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry with a European Placement, carried out at Charles University, Prague (Czech Republic) under the supervision of the charismatic and talented Prof. Martin Kotora. After a short spell working on sausage casings in Devro Plc he returned to The University of Glasgow and obtained a Ph.D. in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Lee Cronin and Dr Nick Hazel of BP Chemicals (Hull). His doctoral research focussed on the self-assembly of polyoxometalate (POM) framework materials and he continued to work with POMs as a postdoc in The Cronin Group from 2010-2011, investigating the combination of Density Functional Theory and Mass Spectrometry to better understand the self-assembly of metal-oxide clusters.

He was awarded a Juan de la Cierva Fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science to carry out research under the supervision of Dr Jesús Martínez de la Fuente at the Institute of Nanoscience of Aragón in Zaragoza (Spain) from 2011-2013. During this period he investigated the synthesis and application of plasmonic nanoparticles as photothermal therapy agents for potential anti-cancer applications. Then from 2013-2015 he held a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship investigating ‘The Complimentary Combination of Polyoxometalates and Metal Nanoparticles’ (COCOPOPS) at the University of Zaragoza. In 2015 he obtained a highly competitive three-year ComFuturo Project as Principal Investigator from the Fundación General CSIC whereupon he joined the Aragón Materials Science Institute (ICMA-CSIC/UNIZAR). In 2018 he obtained a permanent position as Tenured Senior Scientist in the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).

His current academic interests involve synthesising modular and (more often than not) hybrid materials which possess properties that can be fine-tuned and harnessed for a variety of applications in heritage science, biotechnology and catalysis. Scott carries out independent research within the BioNanoSurf Group headed by Prof. Jesús Martinez de la Fuente (also INMA-CSIC/UNIZAR).

Outreach: Scott is keenly aware of the importance of exposure to science at an early age, so he’s involved in designing and presenting programs to help children and young adults understand science and, maybe more importantly, just enjoy and get excited about it. In Summer 2020 he was fortunate enough to participate in the NanoAsalto project financed by FECYT where he was paired with contemporary artist Hugo Cassanova who was tasked with interpreting our research through art. Discussing order and disorder in science and art was a really rewarding experience and Hugo’s painting is spectacular. 

Hobbies: Hailing from the dreich central belt of Scotland, it’s perhaps no surprise that in his spare time here in Spain he tries to make the most of the Spanish way of life by eating and drinking the amazing local produce with friends and family. The mountain running scene here is also fantastic so he does enjoy hoofing up and down hills as a perfect catalyst to get outside and explore the Spanish Pyrenees with his family as often as possible.