Sergio Cicero is Full Professor of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at the UC. He joined the Laboratory of the Materials Science and Engineering Division (LADICIM) of the UC in 2002, at which time he started work on his PhD Thesis. The corresponding thesis defense was completed in 2007, obtaining “Sobresaliente Cum Laude”, the Extraordinary Doctorate Award, the UC Social Council Award in the engineering fields, and the European Doctorate Mention.
Throughout his pre-doctoral studies, he developed 2 international research stays at the Swinden Technology Centre (UK) and the GKSS Forschungszentrum (Germany).
During these almost 20 years of intense research activity, he has published more than 250 documents in journals and conference proceedings, and presented more than 80 works at national and international conferences. In this regard, 99 of the documents have been published in JCR journals, most of them (89) being ranked within the first and second quartiles of their categories. These publications are mainly focused on the mechanical behavior of materials and structural integrity. Additionally, he is member of the editorial board of Material Design and Processing Communications (Wiley), International Journal of Structural Integrity (Emerald), Frontiers in Materials (Frontiers) and Metals (MDPI), has been guest editor of special issues in Theoretical and Applied Fracture Mechanics (Elsevier) and Metals (MDPI), and is a frequent reviewer of manuscripts in more than 40 JCR journals.
Concerning the research projects, there is an equilibrium between competitive research (European, national and regional open calls) and contracts with industry. In most of the projects developed in the last 10 years, he has participated as Principal Researcher. Special attention should be paid to 4 projects led by Prof. Cicero within the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation (Plan Nacional), and to those projects undertaken within the European 7th Framework Programme (HIPERCUT) and Horizon2020 (INCEFA-PLUS, INCEFA-SCALE and FRACTESUS).
This activity has been accompanied by a strong national and international presence, being member of the Spanish Fracture Group-GEF, the European Structural Integrity Society, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers-ASME and Nugenia.
Concerning management capacities and skills, he was Director of Research of the UC (2016-2021), Managing Director of the Fundación Leonardo Torres-Quevedo (2008-2013), and Principal Researcher of two national networks (Spanish Network on Notch Fracture- MAT2015-71668-REDT, and Spanish Network on Notch Mechanics- RED2018-102556-T).
In 2019, he was awarded an Agustin de Betancourt Medal by the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering for his “outstanding contributions to the analysis of fracture and fatigue processes in engineering materials”.
