Professor Antonio M. Echavarren receives the Enrique Moles National Research Award

This award, granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, recognizes the significant contribution of Prof. Echavarren research in the field of organic chemistry and catalysis.

Felipe VI presenting the Enrique Moles National Research Award to Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren, group leader at ICIQ // © Casa de S.M. the King

Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, presented on Wednesday at Casa Mediterráneo in Alicante the 2022 National Research Awards, the most important recognition of Spain in the field of scientific research.

Professor Antonio M. Echavarren, group leader at Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA), scientific director of the Severo Ochoa program at the Institute and president of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ), has received the 2022 Enrique Moles National Research Award in the area of Chemical Science and Technology.

Professor Echavarren has been recognized for the quality and originality of his contributions to synthetic organic chemistry, which have had a great impact on the field of catalysis. As he himself stated, “this award is both a personal recognition and recognition of the excellent collaborators I have had in my research group in Madrid and Tarragona”.

These awards, granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation, distinguish researchers in Spain with exceptional careers and broad international projection due to their excellent contribution in different areas of research and scientific fields in which they have generated and continue to generate knowledge to benefit society.

During the awards ceremony, the recognition from His Majesty King Felipe VI focused on the valuable work of the awardees for the progress and social welfare in our country. For her part, the Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, highlighted the importance of these researchers to position Spain at the forefront of global scientific production, emphasizing that science is a hope for the future.

The gold of chemistry

In the case of Professor Echavarren, his work, with certain characteristics of molecular architecture, investigates new ways to build molecules and has succeeded in obtaining very complex structures of natural products with significant biological activity in the laboratory, based on the development of gold-based catalysts that behave very similarly to natural enzymes.

With an internationally recognized extensive career, Professor Echavarren has received numerous awards, including the Janssen-Cylag Prize in Organic Chemistry(2004), the Gold Medal of the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) (2010), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society (2015) and has been awarded 2 ERC Adv. Grants. In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of prestigious scientific journals, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, member of the European Academy, and President of the RSEQ.

Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren (third row, first on the left) in the picture with all the awardees, with the Kings of Spain and Minister of science and Innovation. / Photo Courtesy of Casa S. M el Rey.

You can watch the full Ceremony here: