Moltes felicitats, Dr. Buils!

20th December 2024 – Jordi Buils, a PhD student who is under Prof. Carles Bo supervision and Dr. Mireia Segado Centellas co-supervision, has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Enhancing POMSimulator Applications in Heteropolyoxometalates: a Statistical and Data-Driven Approach” publicly on Friday December 20th.

The members of the evaluation committee were Prof. Antoni Frontera Beccaria (Universitat de les Illes Balears), Prof. Xavier López (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) and Dr. Nadiia Gumerova (University of Vienna, Austria).

Jordi Buils is from Biniali, a small town in Mallorca. He studied Chemistry at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, completing both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees there. A passionate football fan, he finds joy—and sometimes frustration—in watching football games. He has been awarded the FPI grant from the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades to support his studies.

Why did you become a scientist?

Since I was a kid I always liked science, and when I realized that I couldn’t study medicine I thought, why not chemistry

What do you want to achieve as a scientist?

My goal is to find a position for life and live peacefully

What is your thesis about?

The thesis is about the computational prediction of polyoxometalates through the use of POMSimulator. In the thesis I present the latest advances which enhance the applicability of the method.

What applications can your thesis have in the future?

The methodology could be improved to study new systems, reactions and environments.

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

The boxplots that have been used within

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

Learning to write code, particularly Python, has been the most important part of the thesis.

What ICIQ moment you´ll never forget? 

The first group Christmas lunch

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your PhD?

Python

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

Do not stress, things always sort of get solved. Deadlines can be bargained

What is your favourite molecule? 

Melatonin

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

My ColaCao jar