Elena is a professor in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Alicante (UA) and a senior researcher at the UA Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory (Nanomol), where she coordinates the Photoactive Materials group. Elena has a degree in Chemistry from the UA (2001) and a PhD in Materials Science from the University of the Basque Country (2006, PhD Special Award). Her first postdoctoral stay took place at the Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) in Lyon, France. In 2009, she joined the Nanomol group at the UA with a Juan de la Cierva contract (National R&D Plan). Since then, she has worked as a teacher and researcher in the UA Department of Inorganic Chemistry, where she teaches in the area of Inorganic Chemistry. Furthermore, she supervises trainee students and postdoctoral researchers and codirects Master’s theses (four) and doctoral theses (four, one of them in progress). In 2011 she undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Marseille, which she combined with her teaching duties at the UA. In the period 2017-2021, she had a five-year contract as a Distinguished Researcher at the UA, in the framework of the Talent Retention and Recruitment Programme, until securing a permanent position as a senior lecturer (associate professor) in October 2021 and, four years later, as a full professor in the same department.

Her research activity is focused on the preparation of heterogeneous (photo)catalysts, mainly synthesis and characterisation of photoactive hybrid materials for applications in photocatalysis (wastewater treatment), energy efficiency (photoluminescence) and photovoltaics. She has published 66 articles in JCR-indexed scientific journals (most of them in Q1) with a total of 3,000 citations and an h-index of 26 (Scopus, May 2025). She also holds a national patent and has published 29 book chapters (25 in the area of Teaching Innovation in Science) and coedited two books with Wiley-VCH (Chemistry Education: Best Practices, Opportunities and Trends and The Chemical Element. Chemistry’s Contribution to Our Global Future). During her scientific career she has participated in 49 research projects in the area of Materials Science (eight European projects, nine projects within the National R&D Plan of the Spanish Ministry of the Economy and Competitiveness and 31 regional projects, 10 as PI), 18 technology transfer contracts (four as PI) and 22 teaching innovation projects (two as PI). Much of her research has been disseminated in more than 120 contributions to conferences, most of them international.

She holds the I3 Certification and has three 6-year research periods (CNEAI) and three 5-year teaching periods recognised. She is also an external evaluator for the Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship Programme (H2020) and the R&D Plan of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, as well as an expert evaluator of R&D projects according to RD1432/2003 and a peer reviewer for a good number of journals in the area of Materials Science (Q1 and Q2). She is a member of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT). Scopus Author ID: 7103238476, orcid.org/0000-0003-3340-6675.