DAVID ASTRAIN ULIBARRENA
Catedrático Universidad

• Department: INGENIERÍA
• Area: Máquinas y Motores Térmicos
• e-mail: david.astrainunavarra.es
• Phone number: (+34) 948 16 9597 (ext. 9597)
•   EDIFICIO LOS PINOS - DESPACHO 0030 - P.BAJA

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Doctor of Industrial Engineering from the UPNA since 25-01-2002, David Astrain is currently a University Professor with 4 six-year research periods, 1 technological transfer period and 5 five-year teaching periods. Since 1996, when he started at the UPNA as an Associate Professor, he has held the positions of Assistant Professor of the University School, Assistant Professor of the Faculty, Associate Professor and Associate Professor of the University.

As for the research activity, it should be noted that there is a great coherence in the trajectory he has carried out, with a predominant line of research in the field of thermoelectricity (TE), which began with his doctoral thesis (2nd thesis read in Spain in this field). Since then, this line has continued to be very active until today, with numerous research projects, patents and scientific publications, which has allowed the consolidation of the research group that he leads.

He has participated in a total of 72 research projects, of which 37 are competitive projects. He has been PI of 14 competitive projects, highlighting the 6 of the State Research Plan (3 of Research Challenges, 1 of Collaboration Challenges, 1 of Knowledge Generation and 1 of the Ecological and Digital Transition Plan). In addition, he has been the PI of important technology transfer contracts with companies such as BSH, Azcoyen Industrial, Acciona Energía, Ingeteam, Siemens-Gamesa, Liebherr, Exkal, etc. In the last 10 years, it has managed to attract €1,419,377.00 in competitive projects as PI and €658,776 in contracts with companies. These projects have had an important character of innovation, development and technology transfer to the productive sector. In this regard, Dr. Astrain is the inventor of 6 patents (3 of them international and 3 national), of which 5 are owned by the multinational BOSCH-SIEMENS.

Its dissemination of scientific results is summarized in a total of 98 publications in international journals, of which 80 are international journals indexed by the JCR: 55 are in the first quartile (47 in the first decile) of the JCR and 19 in the second, 9 articles in national journals, 3 book chapters and more than 130 contributions in international conferences.  with 4 plenary lectures. It has received a total of 2329 citations, with an average annual citation of 220 (calculated over the last 5 years) and currently has an h=29 index. 14% of his publications are in the top 10% most cited in the world.

In 2002 he was the Secretary of the 7th European Workshop on Thermoelectrics and in 2020 he was President of the X Iberian Congress and VIII Ibero-American Congress of Refrigeration Sciences and Techniques. CYTEF 2020, both held at the UPNA. He is currently Technical Director of the Chair of Renewable Energies since January 2010 and member of the scientific committee of the Association of Refrigeration Sciences and Techniques since 2009, as well as evaluator and commissioner of the State Research Agency (AEI) and CENAI. He has been a tutor for 2 FPI and a FPU of those who have subsequently joined his department as teachers and currently has another FPI in progress.

It is important to note that when Professor David Astrain joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the UPNA, there were no consolidated lines of research in that department. It was with his doctoral thesis that the TE line began at this university, which has forced him to carry out intense work in research, coordination and management, with the purpose of forming a group. He has supervised 11 PhD students (all with outstanding laude qualification and 4 of them international) and is currently supervising 3 more. It is noteworthy that its last 4 PhD students have received the award for the best contribution at the International Conference on Thermoelectrics

Finally, it should be noted that since 2012, when I took over the coordination of the Thermal and Fluid Engineering research group, it has gone from being made up of 5 members, with only one PhD student, to 16 members at present, of which 9 are PhDs and 5 are working on their doctoral thesis. In addition, ANEP's evaluation of the ITF group was 67 points (out of 100) in 2012, while in the last evaluation in 2022 it is 88, with the qualification of National Excellence.