Marta Peña Fernández

Marta Peña Fernández is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK) since November 2020. Her research interest in on the multiscale mechanical characterisation of mineralised tissues such as bone and coral skeletons. She investigates the structure-function-compositional relationships through a combination of multiscale mechanical testing, X-ray imaging, and computational modelling. Her research aims at better understanding the role of microstructure and hierarchical organisation on the load-bearing ability of healthy and affected tissues. For example, during bone regeneration in critical-sized defects or in coral skeletons affected by ocean acidification.
Formerly, she worked at KTH Engineering Mechanics (Sweden) and the University of Portsmouth (UK) as a Postdoctoral Researcher. She received a PhD in Biomechanics in 2018 from the University of Portsmouth (UK), a Master’s in Biomedical Engineering in 2015 from the Université Paris-Descartes and ParisTech (France) and her BEng and MSc in Industrial Engineering in 2014 from the University of Seville (Spain).