Group Leader Stories
New group leader on board
Dr. Mónica Pérez-Temprano joined ICIQ in November through the ICIQ’s Starting Career Programme (ICIQ-SCP), a programme aimed at attracting new talent and help young researchers to start their independent careers.
At ICIQ, her group will focus on the fundamental understanding of relevant organometallic processes in the context of bimetallic catalysis and C-H activation using first row metals. The long term goal is to provide critical information for the rational design and development of novel catalytic transformations.
Mónica H. Pérez-Temprano graduated in Chemistry from the Universidad de Valladolid in 2005. In 2011 she obtained her PhD at the Institute CINQUIMA (Universidad de Valladolid). During 2009, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Lutz Gade at the University of Heidelberg as a PhD visiting student. After her PhD she moved to the University of Michigan to work with Prof. Melanie S. Sanford on the synthesis and reactivity of high-valent organopalladium complexes. During her stay at the University of Michigan, she received a two-year postdoctoral fellowship from the Ramón Areces Foundation.
Julio Lloret-Fillol appointed ICREA Research Professor
The Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) is a foundation supported by the Catalan Government, which aims to recruit top scientists for the Catalan R&D system. Prof. Lloret-Fillol joined ICIQ in September 2014 and by being appointed as ICREA Research Professor he enters the group of ICIQ group leaders that are also part of the ICREA programme: Professors Vidal, Ballester, Palomares, Melchiorre, Martín, Galán-Mascarós, Kleij and Muñiz.
Prof. Lloret-Fillol focuses his research on the design of new catalysts for a more sustainable chemistry through the use of artificial photosynthetic schemes. He works in the development of new methodologies to employ light as a driving force to produce reductive organic transformations and in the understanding of the reaction of water oxidation, identified as one of the bottlenecks for the production of solar fuels.
Farewell to Professor Piet van Leeuwen
On February 20th, the ICIQ community and friends joined professor Piet van Leeuwen for a symposium in his honour. Professor van Leeuwen retired from ICIQ to start a new research adventure as a visiting professor in the UFRGS (Porto Alegre, Brazil). He will be also be holding a Chair in the Chaires d’Attractivité programme of the Université de Toulouse, France.
The symposium’s invited speakers were professors Joos Reek (Amsterdam University), Dieter Vogt (University of Edinburgh), Carles Bo (ICIQ), Carmen Claver and Sergio Castillón (Universitat Rovira i Virgili). Professor van Leeuwen closed the event with a review of the soundtrack of his life as a researcher and as Piet.
Photo gallery
Symposium’s leaflet