Manuel Melle-Franco was born in Lugo (Spain) in 1972 and has a 5-year degree in Physical-Chemistry from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and an M.Sc. in Materials Chemistry from the University of Kent (UK). Manuel worked one year in the Materials Department of the University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) with Gianfranco Pacchioni and got his PhD in Chemical Physics with Alan Chadwick from the University of Kent (UK) in 2001.

After that, he joined the group of Francesco Zerbetto in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bologna (Italy) for 8 years, and later he moved to Portugal, where he worked as an independent researcher in the University of Porto and University of Minho. He currently works in CICECO - Aveiro Institute of Materials, at the University of Aveiro as a principal researcher. 

Manuel leads the Applied Computer Modelling Lab which uses computer models to understand experimental problems in chemistry, physics, molecular biology and materials science, especially focusing on carbon-based molecules and nanomaterials. Manuel has more than 110 publications, of which 30% as first/corresponding author, with an added impact factor > 850.

Manuel has several works in a variety of high visibility journals such as:

Nature, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (x9)*; Angewandte Chemie* (x9); Nano Letters* (x3); ACS Nano (x2); Nature Communications*; Small; BioMaterials; Journal of Materials Chemistry A; PNAS; Chemical Science* (x3); Carbon (x4); ACS Appl Mater Interfaces (x4); Nano Research; NanoScale (x4);   Chem. Comm.* (x6); Organic Letters* (x7); Chem. Eur. J.* (x5); Environmental Microbiology; J. Chem. Theo. Comp. (x2); Journal of Materials Chemistry C (x2) among others, in addition to Nature Nanotechnology* (x2) review N&V pieces (*: corresponding author). 

Manuel's work has been highlighted in general media, such as radio and newspapers, and in several specialized outlets like Nature Reviews Chemistry, Chemistry World (x7), Physics World (x3), Chemistry Views (x4), SynFacts (x2),   and Computational Chemistry Highlights.

2D-INK was a European project targeted at developing inks of novel 2D semiconducting materials for low-cost large-area fabrication processes on insulating substrates. 

1. Iglesias, Daniel, Manuel Melle-Franco, Marina Kurbasic, Michele Melchionna, Michela Abrami, Mario Grassi, Maurizio Prato, and Silvia Marchesan. “Oxidized Nanocarbons-Tripeptide Supramolecular Hydrogels: Shape Matters!” ACS Nano, May 22, 2018. doi:10.1021/acsnano.8b01182. IF=13.94, Q1, Comp-Exp.
2. Cortizo-Lacalle, Diego, Juan Pedro Mora-Fuentes, Karol Strutynski, Akinori Saeki, Manuel Melle-Franco*, and Aurelio Mateo-Alonso. “Monodisperse N-Doped Graphene Nanoribbons Reaching 7.7 Nm in Length.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, In-press. doi:10.1002/anie.201710467. IF=11.7. 
3. Carini, Marco, Marta P. Ruiz, Imanol Usabiaga, José A. Fernández, Emilio J. Cocinero, Manuel Melle-Franco, Ismael Diez-Perez, and Aurelio Mateo-Alonso. “High Conductance Values in π-Folded Molecular Junctions.” Nature Communications 8 (May 18, 2017): 15195. doi:10.1038/ncomms15195. IF=11.3. 
4. Marco, A. Belen, Diego Cortizo-Lacalle, Iñigo Perez-Miqueo, Giovanni Valenti, Alessandro Boni, Jan Plas, Karol Strutyński, et al. “Twisted Aromatic Frameworks: Readily Exfoliable and Solution-Processable Two-Dimensional Conjugated Microporous Polymers.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, January 1, 2017, in-press. doi:10.1002/anie.201700271. IF=11.7.
5. Melle-Franco, Manuel. “Graphene Fragments: When 1 + 1 Is Odd.” Nature Nanotechnology advance online publication (February 13, 2017). doi:10.1038/nnano.2017.9. IF=35.3.
6. Melle-Franco, M., “Uthrene, a Radically New Molecule?” Chemical Communications 51, no. 25 (2015): 5387–90, doi:10.1039/C5CC01276G. IF=6.3.
7. Höfinger, S., Melle-Franco, M., Gallo, T., Cantelli, A., Calvaresi, M., Gomes, J.A.N.F., Zerbetto, F., “A Computational Analysis of the Insertion of Carbon Nanotubes into Cellular Membranes” Biomaterials 32, no. 29 (October 2011): 7079–85, doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2011.06.011. IF=8.56.