Prof. Asunción Fernández graduated in Chemistry at the University of Cádiz (Spain) (1980) and in Physics at UNED (Spanish Open University) (1984). She carried out her PhD work at the Max-Planck Institut für Strahlenchemie in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr (Germany), obtaining the Dr. rer. nat. degree at the University of Dortmund (Germany) in June 1983. In 1983, she started a postdoc stay at the University of Seville, and in 1987, she joined as a tenured scientist at the Materials Science Institute of Seville (ICMS, Spain), a mixed center of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and the University of Seville. She became a research scientist in 1997 and a full Professor of CSIC in 2002. She has led the research group "Nanostructured Materials and Microstructure - NanoMatMicro" since 1991. From July 2001 to November 2009, she was the director of the ICMS. Her research activities have mainly focused on the physical-chemical study of nanomaterials, aiming to control the synthesis of nanoparticles and nanostructured thin films, as well as to apply microstructural characterization techniques for the study of materials in the nanoscale. At present, she is investigating the innovative bottom-up fabrication of nanostructured thin films by sputtering deposition assisted by plasmas of helium and other light gases. The fabrication of solid-gas nanocomposite films and their applications as solid targets for nuclear reaction studies are innovative topics she pioneered.