ARMANDO FLÓREZ TRONCOS — HTBAA Fall 2026
About me
I am a Biomedical Engineer from Lima, Peru, which means I grew up eating ceviche, watching the Pacific Ocean, and somehow ended up spending my days extracting polymers from shrimp shells and squid ink sacks. Full circle.
Currently, I conduct most of my research in the Polymer and Bionanomaterials Laboratory of my university, where I helped establish protocols for the synthesis of a plethora of biomaterials, specifically those of local origin and specially the ones that come from the sea, which lends itself perfectly with the high biodiversity of my own country. These polymers are then applied to the fabrication of composite films, hydrogels, triboelectric nanogenerators and much more.
I am drawn to biomanufacturing because I believe the most interesting materials on Earth are already being made, just not by us; by fungi, molluscs, and organisms that have had a 500-million-year head start on us. I believe our job is to catch up, borrow their ideas, and scale them up responsibly.
Outside the lab I am learning German, looking up Master’s and PhD programs, and trying to get my 10000 steps in everyday. I joined HTBAA because I want to understand how biological manufacturing actually works at scale, not just in theory, but in an applied sense.
I look forward to finding out more about the world of biomanufacturing and carrying over that knowledge to my own research!
Contact info
Homework, Labs, and Projects
See the nav bar on the left to look through my work for How To Biomanufacture Almost Anything (Fall 2026)!