Guillermo Mínguez, awarded for Research Excellence by the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry

The researcher at the Institute of Molecular Science (ICMol), located at the University of Valencia Science Park, Guillermo Mínguez Espallargas has been awarded one of the four prizes for Research Excellence 2024 granted by the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry (RSEQ). In this modality, the award values the independent scientific trajectory and scientific leadership of the candidates during the last 5 years

Guillermo Mínguez Espallargas (1981) is full professor at the Universitat de València and director of the Crystal Engineering Lab (CEL) research group at ICMol. He graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Seville in 2004, with Extraordinary Prize and Second National Prize. Subsequently, in 2007, he received his PhD degree from the University of Sheffield (UK) under the supervision of Professor Lee Brammer.

In 2008 he joined ICMol, located at the University of Valencia Science Park, where he trained in molecular magnetism with Prof. Eugenio Coronado, professor of Inorganic Chemistry at UV and director of the center. There he started a new line of research combining his previous experience in crystalline engineering and the knowledge acquired in magnetism to develop magnetic coordination polymers with dynamic behavior.

He is currently leading, as a guarantor researcher, the strategic line Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOF) of the María de Maeztu Excellence Unit program granted to ICMol by the Ministry of Science in recognition of the scientific results of the institute, located in the University of Valencia Science Park. ICMol has been a María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence since 2015.

The work of Guillermo Mínguez's group is directed both to the development of molecular materials that form porous networks and to the synthesis of new two-dimensional materials analogous to graphene. He has obtained European funding, through a grant from the European Research Council (the prestigious ERC Grant in its Consolidator modality), but also leads or participates in national and regional projects or with companies.

Mínguez's career has already accumulated several prestigious awards, such as the María Teresa Toral National Research Award, the Princess of Girona Foundation Award for Scientific Research, the Young Researchers Award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, the Dalton Young Research Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry, or the Gold Medal of the European Young Chemist Award, among others.

The RSEQ 2024 Awards ceremony will take place next November.