He graduated in physics in 1987 from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Before and during his PhD (Yale University, 1994), he worked with Prof. J. Fernández de la Mora on aerodynamic focusing, electrospray atomization, and differential mobility analysis. As postdoc associate with Prof. John B. Fenn at Virginia Commonwealth University, he did research on electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. In 1996 he joined Aradigm Corporation (California, USA) to develop liquid micro-jet technology for inhalation drug delivery. There, he co-discovered with Prof. A. Gañán-Calvo (University of Sevilla, Spain) the Flow Blurring liquid atomizer. Since joining Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) in 2004 as ICREA Research Professor, his research has focused on electrospray and electrospinning for the manufacturing of nanomaterials; and recently also on COVID transmission in schools. He currently leads the Droplets, intErfaces, and floWs (DEW) lab at URV.

I am interested in designing nanomaterials by means of fluid dynamics and electrostatics. We use electrostatic fields to force liquid bodies to eject tiny jets, which can be directly printed or used for making nanodroplets (electrospray) or nanofibers (electrospinning). Both by experiment and by computer modeling, we aim to 1) understand the precise mechanisms underlying the fluid dynamic processes involved, 2) devise new nano-fluidic strategies to create functional structures (e.g., ‘smart’ particles for nanobiomedicine), 3) characterize the properties of such structures, 4) engineer ways to assemble them into larger functional supra-structures, e.g. high resolution 3D printing for assembling tissue-engineering scaffolds, and (5) scale up these processes so they can ultimately benefit humankind. Since COVID-19, I have also become interested in the study of contextual variables in school classrooms to predict and reduce the transmission of respiratory diseases in schools.