Guillermo Mínguez, Research Excellence Award from the Royal Spanish Society of Chemistry

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

Guillermo Mínguez Espallargas (1981) is a tenured professor at the University of Valencia and director of the Crystal Engineering Lab (CEL) research group at the ICMol. He graduated in Chemical Sciences from the University of Seville in 2004, with Extraordinary Award and Second National Award. Later, in 2007, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) under the supervision of Professor Lee Brammer.

In 2008 he joined ICMol , where he trained in molecular magnetism with Professor Eugenio Coronado, professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the UV and director of the centre. There he began a new line of research combining his previous experience in crystal engineering and the knowledge acquired in magnetism to develop magnetic coordination polymers with dynamic behaviour.

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

The work of Guillermo Mínguez’s group is aimed both at the development of molecular materials that form porous networks and at 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 he also leads or participates in national, regional projects or with companies.

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

The delivery of the RSEQ 2024 Awards will take place next November.