Brief CV:
- June 1988: Physics Degree, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
- July 1992: PhD in Physics. Supervisors: Fernando Flores and Alvaro Martín-Rodero. PhD dissertation: “Chemisorption of hydrogen in metal and semiconductor surfaces”.
- September 1992 – October 1994: Assistant professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
- November 1994 – October 1996: Marie-Curie postdoc fellow in the group of Prof. Sir John Pendry at Imperial College London, UK.
- November 1996 – November 2007: Associate professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
- December 2007 – Present: Full professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
- April 2012 – March 2017: ERC Advanced Grant “PLASMONANOQUANTA”.
- May 2012 – October 2021: Founding director of the Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC) of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain.
- January 2017 – December 2021: Divisional Associate Editor of the journal Physical Review Letters of the American Physical Society.
- September 2018 – Present: Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of Ikerbasque.
- August 2021 – July 2024: Visiting researcher, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore.
- November 2021 – December 2024: Chairman of the Physics panel within the Spanish Agency for Research (AEI).
Research IDs:
Born on December 2nd (1965) in Madrid (Spain), Francisco José García Vidal graduated in Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) in 1988. He obtained a PhD in Physics from the UAM in 1992 under the supervision of Profs. Fernando Flores and Alvaro Martín Rodero.
Francisco José García Vidal was a Marie-Curie Fellow at Imperial College (1994-1996), working in the theoretical group of Prof. Sir John Pendry. After this postdoctoral stay, he has been associated with the UAM, first as an associate professor and from December 2007 as a full professor. He is the founding director (2012-2021) of the Condensed Matter Physics Center – IFIMAC at UAM, which in 2015 was recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) as an Excellent Research Center within the María de Maeztu program. This distinction was renewed twice, in years 2019 and 2023.
During the last twenty-five years and thanks to the financial support from the European Union and the Spanish government, Prof. Francisco José García Vidal has established a world-leading theoretical group at UAM fully dedicated to investigating the exciting possibilities of Plasmonics, Metamaterials and Nanophotonics. During this period of time, his theoretical group has collaborated with the most relevant experimental groups working in those fields. Prof. Garcia Vidal has directed more than fifteen grants (at both National and European levels) as Principal Investigator and was awarded with a prestigious Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) in 2012.
His theoretical group has made seminal contributions to the fields of Plasmonics, Metamaterials and Nanophotonics such as:
- Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering and highly absorptive metamaterials.
- Extraordinary optical transmission through subwavelength apertures.
- The concept of spoof surface plasmons.
- Light waveguiding using surface plasmons.
- Quantum Plasmonics.
- Near-field Radiative Heat Transfer.
- Polaritonic Chemistry and Materials Science.
Prof. Francisco José García Vidal has supervised 15 PhD theses during his scientific career: 1) Pilar Fernández de Pablos (2004). 2) Jorge Bravo Abad (2006). 3) Blanca Biel Ruiz (2006). 4) Antonio I. Fernández Domínguez (2009). 5) Johan Christensen (2010). 6) Sergio Gutiérrez Rodrigo (2009, University of Zaragoza). 7) Diego Martín Cano (2013). 8) Paloma Arroyo Huidobro (2013). 9) Carlos González Ballestero (2017). 10) Javier Cuerda Rodríguez (2017). 11) Victor Fernández-Hurtado (2018). 12) Javier del Pino Gutiérrez (2018). 13) Javier Galego (2019). 14) Rocío Sáez-Blázquez (2020). 15) Jaime Abad-Arredondo. Prof. Francisco José García Vidal has also supervised the postdoc work of more than 15 researchers.
Prof. Francisco José García Vidal has given more than 100 talks (invited, keynote and plenary) at international conferences. He has also co-organized 12 international conferences or workshops. He serves as reviewer of the most important journals and he was a member of the Editorial Board of New Journal of Physics from January 2009 to December 2013. From March 2017 to December 2021, Prof. Francisco José García Vidal served as Divisional Associate Editor in the journal Physical Review Letters of the American Physical Society (APS) and has been recognized as an outstanding referee of the APS journals in year 2021. He was selected as fellow of the Optical Society of America in year 2020, was awarded by the Jaume I Prize in the category of Basic Research in the same year and also awarded with Blas Cabrera National prize in Physics in year 2021. More recently, Prof. Francisco José García Vidal has been the recipient of the Miguel Catalan prize for Basic Research in Autonomous Community of Madrid (2024) and the medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics (2025). He has also been selected seven times among the most influential physicists of the decade (2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022) by Thomson Reuters.
Most Influential Physicists |
Outstanding Referee of the APS Journals in 2021 |
King Jaime I Prize in Basic Research Blas Cabrera National Prize in Physics Miguel Catalán Prize Medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Physics |
100+ Talks |
Principal Investigator of 15 Projects |
Co-organized 14 International Conferences |
15 PhD Theses |
15+ Postdoctoral Researchers |
