Professor Emilio Palomares (Valencia 1974) has been appointed as the new director of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), a BIST centre, by the institute’s Board of Trustees, with effect from September 28, 2020. The appointment coincides with ICIQ being accredited as a “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence” in the same week. The institute is receiving this recognition for a second time, having obtained it in 2014 as well.
Prof. Palomares, group leader at ICIQ since 2006 and ICREA Research Professor since 2009, will take over the leadership of ICIQ from Prof. Miquel A. Pericàs, founder and first director of ICIQ. Prof. Pericàs will remain in the institute as a group leader until he retires.
“This is a great honour, which I accept eagerly because I have the best possible colleagues and the finest team to work with. Together, we will build on ICIQ’s track record of excellence with an inclusive international programme based on four pillars: Cooperation, Education, Knowledge and Innovation”, said Prof. Palomares.
The new ICIQ director studied Biology at the UVEG (Universitat de València Estudis Generals). After graduating in biology (esp. biochemistry) he carried out his Master thesis in organic chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Alberto Marco at the UVEG. Afterwards, he joined Prof. Hermenegildo García’s group at the ITQ-CSIC-UPV (Instituto de Tecnología Química-Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universitat Politàcnica de València) where he obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2001. That same year he was awarded a “Marie Curie” Fellowship to work on the field of molecular devices for energy conversion, under the direction of Prof. James R. Durrant (Imperial College London). In 2004 Prof. Palomares obtained a “Ramón y Cajal” Fellowship at the ICMol-UVEG (Institut de Ciència Molecular-UVEG, València).
In 2006 Prof. Palomares joined ICIQ to lead a research group focused on the development of organic photovoltaic devices and application of quantum dots. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2009 to work on quantum dots for energy conversion devices and later, in 2015, he obtained an ERC Proof of Concept Grant for the development of biomolecular sensors.
Prof. Palomares has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and he has supervised 15 PhD thesis. He has been the recipient of several awards. The Roscoe Medal and the Sigma-Aldrich Distinguished Lecture (2004); the Young Chemist Award by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (2006) and the Innova SUSCHEM award (2010). Since 2019 he holds the Energy & Environmental Solutions International Chair (E2S) by the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA).