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About the author
Montserrat Diéguez studied chemistry at the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) in Tarragona (Spain), where she earned her Ph.D. in 1997, working in the group of Prof. C. Claver. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship where she worked with Prof. R.H. Crabtree at Yale University, in New Haven (USA), she returned to Tarragona in 1999 and accepted a lectureship position at the URV, becoming part of the permanent staff in 2002. In 2011 she was promoted to full Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the URV.
She has been involved in more than 60 research projects in the fields of organometallic chemistry, steroselective synthesis, and asymmetric catalysis. She is the author/co-author of more than 150 articles in SCI-indexed journals and book chapters, and of several contributions to conferences. She received distinction from the Generalitat de Catalunya for the promotion of University Research in 2004 and from the URV in 2008. She has also been awarded the ICREA Academia Prize from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies 2009–14 and 2015–20, for research excellence, facilitating research priority dedication. Her main research interests are focused on the sustainable design, synthesis, and screening of highly active and selective chiral catalysts for reactions of interest to the biological, pharmaceutical, and organic nanotechnological industries. Her areas of interest include organometallic chemistry, stereoselective synthesis, and asymmetric catalysis, using combinatorial and biotechnological approaches.Antoni Llobet obtained his PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in July 1985, and then moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Thomas J. Meyer, until the end of 1987. After a short period again at UAB and at University of Sussex-Dow Corning (UK) he then became Scientific Officer for the Commission of the European Communities, based in Brussels, Belgium (1990-1991). Then he was appointed Senior Research Associate at Texas A&M University in College Station (USA) from 1992 till 1993, working with the groups of Prof. Arthur E. Martell and Donald T. Sawyer. From 1993 till 2004 he joined the faculty of the Universitat de Girona where he was promoted to Full Professor in 2000. At the end of 2004 he joined the faculty of UAB also as Full Professor. In September 2006, he was appointed as Group Leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) in Tarragona.
His research interests involve the synergistic combination of molecules and materials for the generation solar fuels via artificial photosynthesis. At present he is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “Catalysis Science and Technology” from the Royal Society of Chemistry and “European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry” from Wiley-VCH and Artificial Photosynthesis” from the American Chemical Society (ACS). He served as EAB for “Inorganic Chemistry” from the ACS during the period January 2015 till December 2016.
Dr. Xavier Sala Román is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and leads the Selective Redox Catalysis (SelOxCat) group. His research focuses on redox catalysis, artificial photosynthesis, and sustainable energy. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Girona and has held postdoctoral roles at ICIQ and other international institutions. Dr. Sala has published over 85 papers and received the ICREA Academia Award for 2021–2025.
