ICIQ group leader, Dr. Marcos García Suero has been recognized with the ‘Young Investigator 2020’ Prize, awarded annually by Lilly and the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ). This award distinguishes young Spanish promises under the age of 40 for the excellency of their scientific research and their professional projection.

The award-winning work focuses on the development of new catalytic strategies based on carbynoid radicals, carbyne equivalents, and metal-carbynoids. “These reactive species have shown new unexplored reactivity rules with great potential in solving synthetic problems in the synthesis of complex molecules,” explains Marcos García Suero, who adds: “The potential impact of these new processes in medical chemistry has been manifested in drugs like duloxetine.” The research program will be funded by the European Research Council (ERC-Consolidator Grant) and will last 5 years (2020-2025).

The ‘Young Researcher 2020 Award’ includes an endowment of 3,000 euros that is usually awarded during the XXVIII Biennial Meeting of Organic Chemistry at an event organized by the RSEQ Specialized Group on Organic Chemistry. During this meeting, Dr. Marcos García Suero will give the conference “New catalytic carbene and carbyne transfer in organic chemistry”, in which the researcher will present new catalytic processes based on carbyne and carbyne equivalents, the use of which serves to solve important synthetic problems.

“This award by Lilly and the Royal Spanish Chemistry Society (RSEQ) is a great recognition to my career as a researcher and also to the work that my team has developed in recent years. In addition, it represents yet another success of the ICIQ-CELLEX Starting Career Programme, which allowed me to start my independent career,” stated García Suero.