The Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) is a non-profit organisation founded in 2004 by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The institute is sponsored by leading chemical and pharmaceutical companies and it is funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the European Union (FEDER funds) as well as by competitive research funding and the revenues from industrial collaborations. As a young institution it has demonstrated its leadership in Chemical Research as 8 out of the current 19 Principal Investigators have been awarded ERC Research grants. Main research areas: Chemistry for Energy, and Catalysis. ICIQ staff is recruited worldwide (42% of researchers have international origin).
Prof. Núria López graduated in Chemistry with honours at the University of Barcelona, Spain (1995) and got her PhD degree in Theoretical Chemistry “cum laude” at the same university (1999), in the group of Prof. F. Illas. She then moved to the Center for Atomic-scale Materials Physics for her post-doc in the group of Prof. Jens K. Nørskov (Denmark). In 2001 she moved back to the University of Barcelona as a Ramón y Cajal fellow. In 2004 she was appointed Distinguished Professor by the DURSI in the Junior category (under 41 years old). In November 2005 she took a position at ICIQ, where she currently leads a research group with focus on the theoretical research heterogeneous catalysis. Núria has co-authored over 70 scientific publications. In April 2015 she was awarded a “Prize for Excellence” by the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ).