The 8th edition of the ICIQ-URV PhD Day brings togheter 180 PhD students

Six speakers from research centres and companies across Europe participated in the event

The ICIQ-URV PhD Day succeeds in its 8th edition. This event, co-organised by PhD student from the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA) and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), took place on October 17^th and 18^th at the ICIQ facilities, with over 180 PhD students attending from both institutions.

This event featured six speakers from research centres, universities and companies across Europe. Students also participated in the event with flash talks and poster presentations, three of which were awarded for their quality. The awardees were Laia Marín (Prof. Palomares’ group) and Josep Antoni Gutierrez-Orgaz (Prof. Llobet’s group) for their flash talks, and Lucia Morilla Victorero (URV) for her poster presentation.

The PhD Day is a great experience for the researchers at ICIQ and URV to meat each other and share their work. I strongly encourage any PhD student to participate next year with a poster or flash presentation. Thanks to this year’s organizing committee for making it possible once again.

Josep Antoni Gutierrez-Orgaz

The invited speakers were Prof. Bahareh Khezri, ICREA Professor at URV and Associated Researcher at ICIQ; Dr. Alejandro Mata, Flow Chemistry Lead at Qfluidics; Dr. Carla Obradors, Senior Scientist at Johnson & Johnson; Prof. Luca Dell’Amico, Group Leader at the University of Padova; Dr. Haxel Ozores, CEO of ChemoSapiens; and Dr. José A. Berrocal, Group Leader at ICIQ.

It was such a pleasant and well-organized event! I had a great time sharing my experience with PhD students and postdocs, as it gave me the chance to discuss many aspects of my career that are more personal but that still played an important role in my professional development. The PhD day is a wonderful opportunity for networking, discussing career options and facing challenges one can face in the PhD path, for example. I did not have such an opportunity when I was a PhD student, and I think it would have definitely helped me figure things out.

Dr. José A. Berrocal

The organising committe, a mixture of PhD students from ICIQ and from URV, included Alejandro Delgado, Joan V. Estornell, Rebeca Ferrer and Ricardo Hortigón from this centre, and Khaoula Merimi, Jordi Puiggalí, Angie C. Rueda and Daniel Tarr from the University.

Being part of the PhD Day committee has been a whole new experience. It has been challenging to balance the event organisation with the research for the last few months, but thanks to it I could see how much work there is behind every little detail in the organisation of an event and what it entails. Overall, I am glad I got to experience it, especially for the people I shared it with.

Rebeca Ferrer