The Institut d’Estudis Catalans hosted yesterday the award ceremony of the Catalan Chemical Society (SCQ) Awards, established in 2021 to annually recognise the most outstanding contributions in research, teaching, and outreach in the field of chemistry in Catalonia. In this edition, Professor Núria López, group leader at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), has been awarded the Scientific Excellence Award in recognition of her research career.
López is one of the leading international figures in theoretical chemistry and computational catalysis. She holds a degree and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Barcelona. After a postdoctoral period at the prestigious Center for Atomic-scale Materials Physics in Denmark, she joined ICIQ in 2005, where she leads a research group focused on the development and application of atomistic modelling methodologies and quantum chemistry for the design of new catalysts aimed at energy transition processes.
Her research has contributed to the development of more efficient and sustainable chemical processes, through the combination of atomistic simulations and artificial intelligence to understand their mechanisms and design more efficient catalysts, in close collaboration with experimental groups and industry. Among her most notable contributions is the co-creation of ioChem-BD, an open-data platform for computational chemistry.
The recognition comes a few months after the researcher was included in the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list, which identifies the top 1% most cited researchers worldwide in their respective fields.
The Catalan Chemical Society highlighted this year a set of careers that reflect the diversity and strength of the Catalan chemical research system. In the Emerging Scientific Talent category, the award was shared by Albert Cortijos Aragonès and Benjamí Oller Salvia. In the field of education, Marta Segura i Fàbregas received the Educational Excellence Award, and Francesc Xavier Giménez Font the Educational Innovation Award. Finally, the Outreach Activity Award was granted to Santiago Álvarez Reverter.
La entrada Prof. Núria López awarded the 2026 Scientific Excellence Award of the Catalan Chemical Society se publicó primero en ICIQ.