Arjan Kleij, Laura Rodríguez Raurell y Fabio Juliá Hernández, Premios GEQO 2025.

Una vez reunida la Comisión y evaluadas las candidaturas recibidas para los premios del GEQO-2025 según el procedimiento establecido en el ‘Reglamento Para la Concesión de Premios del GEQO‘, es para mí un placer anunciar la decisión unánime adoptada por la Comisión.

Los premiados de esta convocatoria son:

Medalla Rafael Usón al al Dr. Arjan Kleij por sus excepcionales aportaciones al campo de la química organometálica, en particular a los acoplamientos carbono-carbono catalizados por metales de transición y la fijación de CO2 siguiendo los principios de la sostenibilidad.

Premio GEQO a la Excelencia Investigadora la Dra. Laura Rodríguez Raurell por sus recientes contribuciones al uso de compuestos de metales de transición en la creación de materiales con propiedades luminiscentes.

Premio GEQO a Jóvenes Investigadores al Dr. Fabio Juliá Hernández por su labor investigadora independiente y su liderazgo en el campo de las reacciones fotoquímicas catalizadas por complejos de hierro en la creación de nuevos enlaces carbono-carbono y carbono-heteroátomo.

La Comisión de premios ha estado formada por los siguientes miembros:

  • Elena Fernández (Premio RSEQ Excelencia Inv. 2017)
  • Rubén Martín (Medalla de la RSEQ 2024)
  • Pedro Pérez (Medalla de la RSEQ, 2016)
  • Cristina Tejel (Premio GEQO Excelencia Inv. 2017)
  • En calidad de secretaria de la Comisión (sin voto) asistí yo misma como Presidenta del GEQO.

En mi nombre y en el de la Junta de Gobierno del Grupo quiero transmitir a los premiados nuestra más efusiva felicitación.

Ana C. Albéniz
Presidenta del GEQO

Arjan W. Kleij

Arjan W. Kleij received his MSc and PhD from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands (Gerard van Koten). In 2000, he moved to industry and worked for more than 3 years at Avantium and Hexion. He carried out postdoctoral research in Madrid (Javier de Mendoza) and Amsterdam (Joost Reek). In October 2006, he accepted a position as Group Leader at ICIQ in Tarragona, and joined ICREA.

His main research interests are in the area of (1) the catalytic valorization of biobased carbon sources, (2) the development of circular polymers & fine chemicals, and (3) the use of functional heterocycles in challenging metal- and photo-catalyzed stereoselective transformations.

In 2000 he received an NWO TALENT fellowship and was elected ICREA junior fellow in 2006. In 2020, he was recognized with the Excellence Award of the RSEQ, in 2021 elected a FRSC, and in 2023 he received both the European Sustainable Chemistry Award, and the Scientific Excellence Award of the SCQ. He has supervised so far >25 PhD students and around 30 postdocs. He (co)authored 250 journal publications and 6 patent applications with total citations >19500 (h-index 75).

His appointments and duties include the boards of Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, ChemSusChem, ChemCatChem and ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. He is member of the editorial boards of the Journal of CO2 Utilization and Industrial Chemistry & Materials. In 2016, he chaired the 1st Carbon Dioxide Conversion Catalysis (CDCC-1) conference, and in 2019 the 4th EuCheMS Congress on Green and Sustainable Chemistry (EuGSC-4).

He joined the RSC as an Associate Editor in 2019, and in 2025 will continue at Green Chemistry. Since 2023, he has been the scientific coordinator of the EU-funded doctoral network “D-Carbonize”. Since 2024, he has been part of the governing board of the Division of Green Chemistry (GEQV) of the Spanish chemical society (RSEQ).

Laura Rodríguez Raurell

Laura Rodríguez completed her PhD in Chemistry at the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) in 2003, focusing on metallic clusters and supramolecular chemistry. Following a postdoctoral stay at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, where she acquired strong background on photophysics. Then, she returned to UB as faculty in 2008 and became Full Professor in 2020. Since 2015, she leads the Supra- and Nanostructured Systems (SUNS) group at UB, where she develops luminescent supramolecular organometallic materials for applications in materials, sensing, catalysis, gels, and light-emitting devices.

Her research emphasizes the interplay between molecular design, self-assembly, and photophysical properties in gold(I) and platinum(II) complexes with a clear connection between organometallic and supramolecular chemistry and luminescence.

She has published over 140 peer-reviewed articles and led several national and European research projects as well as collaboration with companies.

Prof. Rodríguez is currently the coordinator of the COST Action LUCES and an active member in several European networks. She has supervised PhD and postdoctoral researchers, delivered numerous invited lectures at universities and scientific conferences.

Her work bridges fundamental supramolecular chemistry and functional materials, with a strong emphasis on knowledge transfer and innovation.

Fabio Juliá Hernández

Fabio Juliá obtained his PhD from the University of Murcia (Spain) in 2016, where he performed his doctoral studies on the synthesis and excited-state behaviour of Pt(IV) complexes under the supervision of Pablo González-Herrero, including a predoctoral research stay in Corey Stephenson’s group at the University of Michigan (USA). He then moved to the University of Manchester (UK), where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Daniele Leonori (2017-2020), followed by a second postdoctoral stage in the group of Tobias Ritter at Max Planck Institut für Kohlerforschung (Germany). In 2021 he started his independent career as Junior Group Leader at ICIQ (Spain) and in 2023 he moved to the University of Murcia where he is a “Ramón y Cajal” Researcher (Assistant Professor). Fabio has received several awards and competitive research grants, such as the RSEQ-Lilly Award, the Thieme Award or the ERC Starting Grant, and his group (https://www.fjulialab.com) aims to develop sustainable methods based on Earth-abundant metal catalysts activated with light.