Marco Mastandrea, PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Miquel À. Pericàs (ICIQ), has virtually defended his PhD thesis entitled “Harnessing Visible Light for the Development of Novel Synthetic Strategies” (assigned to the Analytical and Organic Chemistry Department of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili) publicly on November 18th.
Dr. Mastandrea with the members of the evaluation committee
The members of the evaluation committee were: Prof. Marcos Garcia Suero (ICIQ), Prof. Jesús Jiménez Barbero (UPV, Universitat del País Basc) and Prof. José Luis Mascareñas (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela)
Dr. Mastandrea is from Ruvo di Puglia, a small town in the south-east of Italy. He obtained his Chemistry degree from Bari University and his Master’s in Chemistry from Bologna University. In 2016 he began his PhD in the Miquel Pericàs group at ICIQ. He likes to listen to music and to watch films and tv series, he also likes to play videogames in his spare time.
Why did you become a scientist?
I’ve always been fascinated by science and its promise of deeply understanding reality and being able to transform it.
From the lessons learnt at ICIQ, which one do you value the most?
I really appreciate the seminars and the PhD Days. They proved to be great opportunities to learn more about the chemistry topics your colleagues are working on.
What ICIQ moment you´ll never forget?
I appreciated the Christmas parties and the moments shared with my group outside for lunches.
What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your PhD? What advice do you have for someone who’s starting their PhD now?
The importance of patience and perseverance. I would suggest dedicating the same time to lab practice than to study.
Where are you going next?
I’m going to look for a postdoc.
If you were a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
A flash chromatography column. Thanks to it, we are able to separate the necessary compounds from the unnecessary ones.