Javier is scientific director and founder of the IMDEA Materials Institute and head of the research group on “Advanced Structural Materials and Nanomaterials” at  Polytechnic University of Madrid. He has held visiting appointments at Brown University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Indian Institute of Science. Prof. Llorca, a Fulbright scholar, is Fellow of the European Mechanics Society and member of the Academia Europaea and has received the Research Award from the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences. His research activities have been focused in the systematic application of computational tools and multiscale modelling strategies to establish the link between processing, microstructure and properties of structural materials. A key feature of his contributions is the use of novel experimental techniques to determine the properties of the phases and interfaces in the material at the nm and µm scale. So, simulations are fed with experimental values independently obtained and free of "adjusting" parameters. Some of these developments have become the foundation of the modern techniques of virtual testing of composites, which are starting to be used by the aerospace industry to minimize the number of costly mechanical tests to characterize and certify composite structures. His current research interests – supported by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council – are focused in the development of multiscale modelling strategies to carry out virtual design, virtual processing and virtual testing of metallic materials, including the experimental validation at different length scales, so new alloys can be designed, tested and optimized in silico before they are actually manufactured in the laboratory.