Ulysse Caniparoli, PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren, has defended his PhD thesis entitled “Ferrocene-Based Chiral Catalyst Design for Enantioselective Cycloadditions Reactions” (assigned to the Organic and Analytical Chemistry Department of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili) publicly on October 8th.
The members of the evaluation committee were: Prof. Angela Marinetti (Université Paris-Saclay), Prof. Yolanda Díaz (URV) and Prof. Olga García Mancheño (University of Münster).
Dr. Caniparoli with his thesis supervisor, Prof. Antonio Echavarren
Dr. Caniparoli is from Metz (France). He studied Chemistry at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Chimie de Montpeller (ENSCM) and did several internships in organic and pharmaceutical chemistry before joining ICIQ to pursue his PhD in the Echavarren group. He enjoys swimming and is keen on photography and music.
Why did you become a scientist?
I’m a curious person and I was really interested in chemistry and biology. What I like about these two fields is that they are like a lego and we’re building structures.
From the lessons learnt at ICIQ, which one do you value the most?
Resilience! And being rational, a balance between the two will help you to realise when you need to re-focus and find new ways to achieve your goals. It’s important to face failure and knowing when to stop, so that you don’t throw away any more time in an idea that will not work.
What ICIQ moment you’ll never forget?
I guess, my defence!
What surprised you the most the first time you came at ICIQ?
I came from different research institutions, and what surprised me the most were all the new facilities of ICIQ. The instruments, the resources and the scientific core facilities it has for research are very good.
What advice do you have for someone who’s starting their PhD now?
Don’t hesitate to ask for help to more experienced people around you. The first year, I think most of us barely know the subject nor where we are going with it.
Which is the most important skill you learnt?
During these years I learnt how important prioritising tasks is.
If you were a piece of lab equipment, what would you be?
I would be a flask, because I think it’s the most important equipment in the lab as we use it for a vast array of experiments. Everything we do, we do in a flask.
Chemistry is fun because…. It’s colourful and full of surprises and when you make a mistake you get interesting results. Everything around us is chemistry!