Maria Varela

Maria Varela obtained her PhD (2001) in Physics at Complutense University, Madrid, Spain (UCM). She joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a Wigner Fellow in 2002 and became a Distinguished Research Staff Member in the Materials Science and Technology Division. She became a Full Professor in Condensed Matter Physics at UCM in 2017 after being the recipient of a European Research Council Starting Investigator Award. Since September 2023 she is the Director of the National Center for Electron Microscopy at UCM, as well. Her research experience includes thin film growth, transport properties and structural characterization by aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and atomic resolution energy-loss spectroscopy.  She has been the recipient of awards such as the Burton Medal of the Microscopy Society of America, and she is a Fellow of the American Physical Society since 2016.