Rafael Muñoz-Espí studied chemistry at the University of València, completing his degree in 2001. From 2002 to 2006 he worked in the group of Professor Gerhard Wegner at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz. He received his doctoral degree in 2006 from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz for a thesis analyzing the effects of functional latex nanoparticles on the growth and physical properties of zinc oxide. After a short postdoctoral period with Professor Wegner, he worked for two years at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA, as a postdoctoral associate of Professor Benjamin Chu. During this time, he was mainly involved on the polymer-assisted formation of polyoxometalates and transition metal oxides, and their structural characterization, especially by means of X-ray scattering techniques. He has been recipient of a postgraduate fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Foundation "la Caixa" (2002–2003), and a Marie Curie fellowship for doctoral studies (2003–2004). At the beginning of 2009, he joined Professor Katharina Landfester at the MPI-P. His research interests include mineralization processes and their control by polymers, the study of the interaction of polymers with inorganic crystals, and the preparation of organic-inorganic hybrid materials.