Advanced Training
ICIQ has a strong commitment to offer training programmes for undergraduates, graduate students and doctoral researchers. We prepare a new generation of researchers with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle the most important challenges in chemical research. We are convinced that an integral education beyond chemistry is crucial to achieve outstanding research results and fruitful life achievements.
Training Programmes
The ICIQ Graduate Student Programme ICIQ’s PhD student programme is at the core of our commitment to education. We foster graduate students in their path to think, design and execute a research project under the supervision and mentoring of an ICIQ Group Leader. The programme targets highly qualified and talented graduate students with an enthusiastic interest in chemical research and has been successful in attracting students from all over the world.
In 2019 we launched four calls of our PhD Fellowship Programme. A total of 14 graduate students joined ICIQ through ICIQ’s fellowship programme. We also incorporated PhD students through other funding calls: 3 FI (AGAUR); 2 FPU (MECD); 1 Estancias breves FPU(MECD); 3 FPI (MICIU); 1 Mobility Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD); 2 Industrial Doctorate DI (AGAUR) and 1 PREBIST (Cofound- BIST).
PhD theses defended in 2019
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| Date | Name | Thesis title | Supervisors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25.01 | Franziska S. Hegner | Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of Prussian Blue-Type Catalysts for Artificial Photosynthesis | Prof. Núria López / Prof. José Ramón Galán-Mascarós |
| 08.03 | Cristina García Morales | Reactivity and Characterization of Gold(I) Carbenes: Key Intermediates in Gold(I) Catalysis | Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren |
| 14.06 | Sofia Paulo Mirasol | Optoelectronics properties of Quantum Dots for biomedicine and energy-to-light | Prof. Emilio Palomares |
| 21.06 | Cristina Rodríguez Seco | Low-molecular Weight Organic Semiconductors for Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells | Prof. Emilio Palomares |
| 28.06 | Lijuan Han | Electrochemical Oxidation of Water and Formate Promoted by Prussian Blue Analogues for Electricity Storage and Generation | Prof. José Ramón Galán-Mascarós |
| 8.07 | Asmaul Hoque | A Journey towards Efficient Molecular WOCs: From Mononuclear to Polynuclear Complexes | Prof. Antoni Llobet / Dr. Carolina Gimbert |
| 10.07 | Sergi Grau Abarca | Molecular Photoanodes and Photocathodes for Light Induced Water Splitting | Prof. Antoni Llobet |
| 11.07 | Juan José Corral | Continuous hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to formates and formic acid over heterogeneous catalysts | Prof. Atsushi Urakawa |
| 15.07 | Ilario Gelmetti | Advanced Characterization and Modeling of Charge Transfer in Perovskite Solar Cells | Prof. Emilio Palomares |
| 17.07 | Lucas Carreras | Supramolecular Catalysis: Halogen Bonding and Regulation Strategies Applied to Hydroboration and C-H Functionalization Reactions | Prof. Anton Vidal |
| 22.07 | Carla Casadevall | Mechanistic Studies of Water Oxidation Catalyzed by Homogeneous Iron and Ruthenium Complexes and Light-driven Organic Reductions with a Dual Cobalt/Copper Catalytic System | Prof. Julio Lloret-Fillol |
| 26.07 | Giulia Moncelsi | Stimuli-responsive host-guest systems decorated with hemithioindigo and spiropyran units | Prof. Pablo Ballester |
| 12.09 | José Enrique Gómez | Stereoselective Synthesis of Sulfones and Amino Acids from Functionalized Heterocycles | Prof. Arjan W. Kleij |
| 20.09 | Ana García Herraiz | New Carbon Reactivity Rules with Radical Carbenoids and Carbyne Equivalents by Photoredox Catalysis | Dr. Marcos García Suero |
| 17.10 | Sara Cuadros | Exploiting Organocatalysis in Photochemical Processes | Prof. Paolo Melchiorre |
| 21.10 | Adiran de Aguirre | Non-innocent Ligands: From Proton Shuttle to Photo-Activation | Prof. Feliu Maseras |
| 24.10 | Giandomenico Magagnano | Photochemical Processes Enabled by the Direct Excitation of Organic Intermediates | Prof. Paolo Melchiorre |
| 24.10 | Nathan Daelman | Theoretical investigations into single-atom catalysts on cerium dioxide: deposition and activation | Prof. Núria López |
| 31.10 | Luis Escobar | Molecular Recognition in Organic Solvents and Water Using Receptors Based on Calix[4]pyrrole Scaffolds | Prof. Pablo Ballester |
| 31.10 | Lluis Llorens | Preparation of Cucurbiturils (Cbs) Immobilized on Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles (Mnps) for Application in Selective Complexation and Catalysis | Prof. Miquel À. Pericàs |
| 8.11 | Ana Mateo | Computational Studies of C-B Bond Formation Reactions | Prof. Carles Bo |
| 18.11 | Shaofei Ni | The Role of Copper in Homogeneous Catalysis: Single Electron Transfer and Beyond | Prof. Feliu Maseras |
| 22.11 | Jesús Jiménez López | Analysis of the Different Kinetic Processes in Perovskite Solar Cells | Prof. Emilio Palomares |
| 22.11 | Alexandra Bosnidou | New Methodology for C-N Bond Formation within Iodine Redox Manifolds | Prof. Kilian Muñiz |
| 25.11 | Yiting Gu | C-H & C-O Functionalization by Silicon-Heteroatom Interelement Linkage | Prof. Rubén Martín |
| 3.12 | Eric Tan | Visible Light Photoredox Promoted Transformations of Inert Chemical Bonds | Prof. Antonio M. Echavarren |
| 12.12 | Aijie Cai | Pd-catalyzed Allylic Substitution for the Construction of Quaternary Stereocenters | Prof. Arjan W. Kleij |
| 18.12 | Andrea Moneo | Bistable Molecular Materials: Triazole-based Coordination Chemistry of First Row Transition Metals | Prof. José Ramón Galán-Mascarós |
Postdoctoral researchers at ICIQ have an outstanding opportunity to develop their research career in a collaborative and international environment. We believe in empowering postdoctoral researchers and strengthening their leadership skills. In 2019 we succeeded in obtaining three Marie Curie Sklodowska Actions – Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) grants. Moreover, ICIQ benefited from one Beatriu de Pinós (AGAUR) and four postdoctoral grants from the COFOUND programme PROBIST (BIST).
We participated in two Master programmes. The URV/ICIQ Master in Synthesis, Catalysis and Molecular Design provides scientific training in the design of new methods of synthesis, development of catalysts, computational design and management of environmentally friendly chemical processes. The Master also focuses on providing the skills needed to address research and development tasks and innovative activities in the industry. Eleven ICIQ Master students were awarded one of the institute’s master projects fellowships. We also participated in the Master of Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences (BIST-UPF), which provides in-depth hands-on research training in multiple fields. Students undertake a 6-month major project, and a 10-week minor project in two different research disciplines in different BIST centers. Two ICIQ students obtained grants to pursue the BIST-UPF master programme.
ICIQ Summer Internship Programme brings together outstanding undergraduate students who make the most of their Summer holidays by working in one of ICIQ’s research groups during the months of July, August and September. In 2019, ten students from different countries were awarded one of our summer fellowships to carry out research projects in several groups at the centre. Since 2011, 27 summer fellows have joined ICIQ to carry out master or doctoral studies.
The ICIQ Summer Fellowships Programme is sponsored by Fundació Bancària La Caixa.
Transferable Skills Courses
| TRAINING COURSE NAME | AUDIENCE | OBJECTIVES | PROVIDER |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to be an effective researcher | New PhD students | Enhance the effectiveness of postgraduate researchers by providing them with an opportunity to build their understanding, skills and confidence in communication, planning and time management, problem solving, leadership and assertiveness. Help researchers to have a greater self-awareness of learning and working styles. | Vitae - BIST |
| Dynamic Light Scattering | ICIQ researchers | The aim of the workshop is to give support to users of the Heterogeneous Catalysis equipment. | Internal (Georgiana Stoica) |
| Managing myself & working with my team | Postdoctoral researchers | Develop a conceptual framework to understand and deal with some of the most common challenges that postdocs face. Acquire a set of practical tools and methods that are immediately applicable in the participants’ working environment. | The Papermill |
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| TRAINING COURSE NAME | AUDIENCE | OBJECTIVES | PROVIDER |
|---|---|---|---|
| Techniques available in the ChromTae unit | ICIQ researchers | The workshop is devoted to practical | Simona Currelli (ChromTAE unit) |
| Heterogeneous Catalysis Unit Seminar | ICIQ researchers | The aim of the workshop is to give support to the users of the EMX Micro EPR (from Bruker) equipment. | Internal (Georgiana Stoica) |
| Effective scientific oral presentations | ICIQ researchers | The aim of this workshop is to improve the oral communication competence, for preparing better presentations | Fundació Dr. Antoni Esteve |
| Leadership in Action | Postdoctoral researchers | This workshop allows researchers to explore and develop their leadership skills. Participants have the opportunity to look at relevant theory, to practice their unique leadership styles and to receive feedback. | Vitae - BIST |
| RSA general overview | New researchers | Regular sessions for new researchers about ICIQ instrumentation facilities. | Internal (Gisela Colet) |
| IP Management at ICIQ | ICIQ researchers | Introduce the existing forms of IP titles and the way IP is managed at ICIQ. | Internal (Fred Ratel) |
| Introduction to Research Integrity | Provide knowledge about key aspects for a responsible conduct of research. | Maruxa Martínez (PRBB) | |
| How to survive a PhD | New PhD students | Enhance the effectiveness of the new PhD students by providing them with an opportunity to improve the following skills: communication, teambuilding, conflict resolution, time management, project management, and creativity. | Internal (HR Unit) |
| From science to business | BIST researchers | Provide researchers with the tools to launch a new business exploiting scientific or technical knowledge. | ESADE - BIST |
| GRADSCHOOL BIST | PhD students | GRADschools are experiential learning courses designed to develop the transferable skills of postgraduate researchers. Many researchers who attend the course have a transformational experience, empowered to take charge of their own learning and career. | Vitae – ICIQ - BIST |
| RMN workshop | ICIQ researchers | Present of all NMR resources available in the intranet. | Internal (Gabriel González) |
| Leadership and management skills for senior postdocs | Postdoctoral researchers | Improvement of collaboration and (self) organizational skills. Learn and practice useful tools to advance in the career in science and be encouraged to establish and maintain a peer support group. | HFP Consulting - BIST |
| Leadership and management skills for senior PI | Group leaders | Aimint at improve the communication, collaboration and leadership skills; at provide useful tools for balancing the roles of manager, leader, scientist; conflict resolution. and negotiation; acquire skills in order to make and communicate hard decisions; and analyze how to actively shape the culture of science at their institution. | HFP Consulting - BIST |
| High Throughput Experimentation | ICIQ researchers | Dr. Anna Bellomo and Xisco Caldentey (HTE unit) | |
| Mass Spectrometry seminar | ICIQ researchers | The seminar was focused on the following topics: basic aspects of mass spectrometry and guidelines to be followed by all MS Unit users | Internal (Noemi Cabello) |
| LC/SFC chiral separation | ICIQ researchers | Dr. Pilar Franco-Chiral Technologies | |
| Good practices in the laboratory | ICIQ researchers | Mettler Toledo | |
| Basic concepts of Pharmaceutical Solid State Development | ICIQ researchers | Explain different techniques you can use to obtain single crystals of your compounds. At the end of the seminar a few crystallization experiments starting from the melt will be performed. | Internal (Dr. Jordi Benet and Jordi Cerón, Crysforma) |