Tania Medina, a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren, has successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Development of Gold(I)-Catalyzed Reactions Between Alkenes and Acetylene Gas” publicly on Friday, October 11th. The members of the evaluation committee were Prof. Ruben Martin (ICIQ), Prof. Rosa María López (Universidad del País Vasco) and Prof. Christophe Bour (Institut de Chimie Moleculaire et des Materiaux d’Orsay, France)

Born and raised in Madrid, Tania Medina completed both her Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and her Master’s in Organic Chemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). By the time she finished her studies, she was certain that she wanted to pursue a PhD, which led her to join the research group of Prof. Antonio Echavarren at ICIQ. She has a strong appreciation for nature and enjoys hiking, especially around the scenic areas near Tarragona, as well as swimming, which she finds helpful in relieving stress.

Tania received an FPI fellowship from the Spanish Government to pursue her PhD thesis within the group at ICIQ. This fellowship not only enabled her to conduct her doctoral research at ICIQ but also provided the opportunity for a 4-month short stay in the research group of Prof. Dirk Trauner at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).

What triggered your interest for the subject of your thesis?

When I joined the group, we were highly interested on exploring the use of acetylene gas for gold(I) catalysis and at the beginning of my thesis I wanted to explore what novel chemical reactions could be developed combining these two tools.

What applications can your thesis have in the future?

I think the activation of acetylene gas with gold(I) catalysis is a relatively new field and many other things can be done in the future. I hope my thesis can serve as a starting point for the development of novel methodologies and hopefully, the reactions that I have developed can be employed for the synthesis of novel functional materials or biologically active compounds.

The thing that I like most about my thesis is…. 

I really like how my thesis shows the evolution I have underwent in the past years. I think from reading it you can see the change between the moment that I started my thesis and the scientist that I have become now.

From the lessons learnt (or skills developed) at ICIQ, which one do you value the most?

In my opinion, one of the most important skills that I have acquired during these years is the independence. When I started, I wasn’t able to even set up a reaction on my own, and now, I can easily face the daily lab problems and even come up with new ideas and projects to test.

What will you miss the most from ICIQ?

The thing I will miss the most from ICIQ is the people that I have met here. I’m really proud to say that I have created a family here and that, even though each of us may be living in different countries or cities, we will always be in each other’s life.

What advice do you have for someone who’s starting their PhD now?

To someone that is starting their PhD now I would advise to be patient. It is normal to feel overwhelmed at the beginning and thinking that you are a fool. However, this would get better, and you would starting see the amazing experience that is to embark on a PhD.

Have you ever been emotional over an experiment/simulation? Why?

I would like to say no because it’s important to distinguish between life and work so you don’t get affected when a reaction doesn’t work or you don’t obtain the expected results. However, I would be lying if I don’t say that sometimes I’ve got disappointed or sad with the results obtained, but I guess that’s science.

Who/What has been your biggest influence/motivation?

I could not say only one person that has been an influence for me but I have to choose I would say my supervisor has been a huge motivation, allowing me to keep going even though when the results were not as god as expected and knowing what I could achieve following this pathway of research.

Chemistry/Science is fun because…

It allows you to test any idea that comes to your mind without knowing the results that you would get.

What is your favourite molecule? 

Obviously, my favorite molecule is acetylene as it has been the main character of my thesis. I have never worked with gases before and during these years I have learnt that this small molecule is highly reactive and can easily react with gold(I) catalysts to achieve innovative transformations.

If you were a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?

If I was a piece of equipment, I will be a Multi HEL Reactor because it allowed me to run all my reactions with acetylene gas. I could also set up almost 20 reactions at the same time which was highly convenient for optimization reactions.

Tell us something about you that people might not know… 

Some people may not know that I am a very insecure person and that it always takes a while for me to understand that I can be as good as anyone and that my life shouldn’t be determined by what people think of me.