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Feliu Maseras Cuní

Feliu Maseras completed his PhD in Chemistry in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 1991. His scientific career involved long post-doctoral stays in the Institute for Molecular Science (IMS, Okazaki, Japan, with Prof. Morokuma) and the Université de Montpellier 2 – CNRS (France, with Prof. Eisentein). In 1998, he obtained a position of Associate Professor in the UAB, in the group of Prof. Lledós, from where he moved in 2004 to his current position as director of a research group in the Institut Català d’Investigació Química (ICIQ).

His research has been at the forefront of applying computational chemistry to solve practical chemical problems. From early work on organometallic complexes, his work has had an impact on the field of computational homogeneous catalysis, especially in areas such as cross-coupling and C-H bond activation. His other research interests include organocatalysis, photocatalysis, single-electron transfer, and mechanochemistry. Feliu Maseras has also contributed to methodological advances in computational chemistry, including the development of QM/MM methods, big data analytics, and the identification of hidden descriptors in chemical processes.

With nearly 300 publications and over 50 invited talks at international conferences, his work has influenced a wide range of scientific domains. He has supervised 24 doctoral theses and hosted 19 postdoctoral researchers. Additionally, he has provided short research opportunities for 22 graduate and 24 undergraduate students. He has been granted a few awards, the most remarkable among them being the «Chemical Society Reviews lectures award 2008» and the «Química Física» prize from the Spanish Chemical Society (RSEQ) in 2011.

In recent years, he has also had editorial activity. He has been a member of the Advisory Editorial Board of Chemical Society Reviews from January 2011 and, more significantly, Associate Editor of ACS Catalysis from March 2019.

Jesús Campos Manzano

Jesús Campos Manzano

Rafael Gramage-Doria

Rafael Gramage-Doria graduated in Chemistry from both the University of Valencia and the Ecole de Chimie, Polymeres et Materiaux in Strasbourg including a Master degree. In 2008, he began his PhD studies at the University of Strasbourg in the group of Professors Dominique Armspach and Dominique Matt focusing on metallocyclodextrins with unusual coordination properties and their application in homogeneous catalysis. After obtaining his PhD in 2012, he moved to the University of Amsterdam as a Rubicon postdoctoral fellow in the group of Professor Joost N. H. Reek. His main research project focussed on the development of supramolecular gold nanospheres as catalysts in which it was possible to finely tune the local gold catalyst concentration, asides some collaborations on rhodium-catalysed hydroformylation in confined spaces.
After a short postdoctoral period in Nagoya University with Professor Takashi Ooi on ion-pair organocatalysis, in 2015 he was recruited as CNRS researcher in the Institute of Chemical Sciences at the University of Rennes. Within the organometallic catalysis team, he has developed innovative catalytic systems based on metal complexes leading to advantageous C-H bond functionalizations and other relevant chemical disconnections that have implications in the streamline synthesis of fine chemicals. Recently, and much inspired by enzymatic features, he has been interested in weak coordination chemistry as an effective tool to control chemical catalysis in a supramolecular fashion as well as in the development of electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction, which is important in the context of sustainable water splitting and green chemistry. This research work has been funded by European (MSCA, Prestige), national (ANR, CNRS innovation, College de France) and regional agencies as well as industries (Janssen).
Rafael has published 63 publications, 3 book chapters and 2 patents. He has been invited to more than 20 conferences and university seminars. The results of his research have been recognized with several awards, such as the SCF-DivCat youg researcher award 2024, the Jean-Pierre Sauvage SCF-DCO young researcher award 2022, the emerging investigator recognition by Catal. Sci. Technol. 2021, the JSP-Burgenstock fellowship 2020/2021, and the young chemist recognition by Chem. Eur. J. 2020.