作者: Erick Castellón

David Levy is research professor and head of the Sol-Gel Group at the Materials Science Institute of Madrid (ICMM) of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. His research interests are optical materials, liquid crystal materials, Sol-Gel processing and their applications. During his time at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem David Levy pioneered the sol-gel process for the preparation of organically doped silica-gel glasses. He has more than 130 publications and a number of patents to his name and has received numerous prizes in recognition of his work on sol-gel materials, including the First Ulrich Prize and the nomination to King Juan Carlos-I research award. David Levy also headed the LINES of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology, INTA, where he developed space materials, instrumentation and micro/nanotechnologies for space to be implemented on the board of a satellite. Erick Castellon is professor and researcher in physical and materials chemistry at School of Chemistry and Centre for Materials Science and Engineering (CICIMA), University of Costa Rica. He obtained his Ph D in 2011 at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, performing his research in the Institute of Materials Science in Madrid under the advice of David Levy and Marcos Zayat. His main research interests include chemistry of materials with photonic applications, liquid crystals and porous materials with emphasis on hybrid organic-inorganic materials obtained by the sol-gel technique.