Rate My Professor Javier Fernández

Javier G. Fernandez is an Associate Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), where he has served since 2015 as a founding academic member. He heads the Fermart Lab focused on bioinspired and integrative science and has been Chair of the Institutional Review Board since 2022. He was promoted to tenured Associate Professor in 2021. Prior to joining SUTD, Fernandez held positions at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University from 2010 to 2014, where he served as a research associate leading work on bio-inspired materials for sustainable and medical engineering, and as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT from 2009 to 2010 working on tissue engineering and 3D self-assembly technologies.

Fernandez earned a Ph.D. in NanoBioEngineering from the University of Barcelona and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in 2008, with a thesis on the fabrication and characterization of nanostructures on chitosan biocompatible surfaces that was awarded the best Ph.D. thesis of the year at the University of Barcelona. He also holds an M.Sc. in Nanotechnology from Øresund University (Lund University, Technical University of Denmark, and University of Copenhagen) and an M.Sc. in Fundamental Physics from the University of Cantabria. His research centers on the study, development, and application of biological materials in science and technology, including the development of Fungus-Like Adhesive Materials (FLAM) for large-scale 3D printing using chitin and cellulose composites. He is the founder of Chitonous Pte. Ltd. Fernandez has received numerous honors, including the Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award for materials science in 2014, recognition as one of MIT Technology Review’s Asia Innovators Under 35 in 2015, and the LAUNCH sustainability innovation award in 2016. He has secured major grants from Singapore’s National Research Foundation and Ministry of Education for projects on biomaterial manufacturing and insect structural colors.