Luis Echegoyen is ICIQ’s distinguished researcher

The scientist arrives at Tarragona to promote the development of relations with Central and South American countries

Luis Echegoyen, scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at El Paso and former president of American Chemical Society (ACS) joins ICIQ to help attract international talent and establish relations with universities in Central and South American countries.

The Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA) aims to train the future generation of scientists and offer quality education and training programmes for students from master to postdoctoral researchers. Now, the centre is going a step further and involves Luis Echegoyen to strengthen the centre’s international links, mainly with universities in Central and South America.

“Becoming a figure capable of promoting international scientific collaborations is one of the reasons why I have chosen to come to ICIQ” says Echegoyen, who is satisfied with the project to be developed. Concretely, the project IVORI emphasizes female talent and counts on with the collaboration of Dr. Laia Pellejà to make it possible.

In this sense, Laia Pellejà, administrative director of ICIQ points out, “ICIQ promotes inclusive, equitable and quality education and seeks to promote opportunities beyond our geographical area. In South American countries, the students count with great academic capabilities and at ICIQ they will have the opportunity to carry out practical research. It is a win-win for everyone as it will allow them to acquire skills to develop a scientific career and we will gain in talent. These programmes are fundamental to guarantee excellence”.

For his part, ICIQ’s director, Prof. Emilio. J. Palomares Gil, welcomes the appointment of Echegoyen as the new ambassador of ICIQ, a scientific and institutional relationship that “will serve to establish research projects with universities and countries in America, a fact that will strengthen our links and global positioning”.

Echegoyen has an extensive academic career that began at the University of Puerto Rico as a lecturer. Later he joined the University of Miami where he worked for 19 years. He is currently professor emeritus at the University of Texas, where he continues to collaborate in electrochemistry research. In 2020 he was elected president of the American Chemical Society. During his career, he has published more than 412 research papers and 47 book chapters. In addition, the scientist had the opportunity to work alongside the 1987 Nobel laureate in chemistry, Jean-Marie Lehn.

ICIQ thanks the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación/Agencia Estatal de Investigación for funding through the Severo Ochoa Excellence grant CEX2019-000925-S (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/ 501100011033).