Great honor for MPI research group leader: Dr. Josep Cornella receives the „Hoechst Dozentenpreis“

The Fund of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) awards the “Hoechst Dozentenpreis” to particularly outstanding young scientists. Prize winners from the fields of chemistry or biochemistry are proposed to the Board of Trustees and have to demonstrate their research achievements in front of university lecturers. Dr. Josep Cornella from the MPI für Kohlenforschung is one of this year's four winners of the „Hoechst Dozentenpreis”. He receives a research grant amounting to 75,000 Euro.

Josep Cornella, born in 1985, studied chemistry at the University of Barcelona, Spain. He went to the UK and completed his doctorate at Queen Mary University in London. In 2012, he moved to the Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ) in Tarragona, Spain, supported by the international Marie Curie Mobility Program for Postdoctoral Researchers. There he was awarded a Beatriu de Pinos Fellowship in 2015 and went to the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, USA for a further postdoctoral stay. There Cornella conducted research with Phil Baran on redox-active esters as connecting partners with transition metals. Since April 2017, he has been heading the research group "Sustainable Catalysis for Organic Synthesis" at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim. The research focus is on the development of new, sustainable and practical processes with the aim of finding fast and efficient ways for organic synthesis. The group investigates the redox properties of nickel and bismuth with respect to their transformative chemical reactivity and thus their suitability for use as catalysts.

For the Cornella group, the “Dozentenpreis” is a great recognition of the research successes achieved so far. Last year Cornella already received several awards for young scientists, including a highly remunerated ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council.

The Managing Director of the MPI, Professor Tobias Ritter, is proud of his research group leader: "Josep Cornella has proven that he is on the right track with his topic and his innovative approaches. We are excited to have him with us and offer him an environment in which his research can flourish".

Further information: https://www.vci.de/fonds/hochschulfoerderung/dozentenpreis/dozentenpreis-fonds-an-josep-cornella.jsp