CiQUS PhD student Daniel Marcos wins one of the seven national Fulbright grants for stays abroad

09/06/2022
  • Daniel Marcos will spend six months at the University of California at Berkeley in the research group of the prestigious chemist John F. Hartwig.

CiQUS PhD student Daniel Marcos, who is working on his thesis in Jose L. Mascareñas' group, has just won the prestigious Fulbright grant to carry out pre-doctoral research at universities or research centres in the United States. Fulbright grants are fifteen in total from any discipline and Daniel Marcos has been one of the seven researchers awarded in the general programme, which consists of only seven grants nationally.

In order to be eligible for these prestigious grants, persons concerned must meet a series of requirements, including a letter of invitation from the American institution of destination. In Daniel's case, he has been invited by the University of California at Berkeley, more specifically by the research group of the prestigious chemist John Hartwig.

John F. Hartwig, an eminence in the field of chemistry

Professor of Chemistry at the University of California in Berkeley, Hartwig is an organometallic chemist known for helping develop Buchwald-Hartwig animation, a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry for the synthesis of carbon-nitrogen bonds via the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling of amines with aryl halides. Awarded several prizes for his research, John F. Hartwig is one of the most influential scientists in the field of chemistry, and a clear candidate for the Nobel Prize.

Highly competitive grants

Fulbright Predoctoral Research Grants are highly competitive with a total of 15 national grants distributed in three programmes: 5 specific grants for doctoral students from universities in Andalusia, funded by the Junta de Andalucía; 3 specific grants for doctoral students from universities in Murcia, funded by the Government of Region of Murcia; and 7 general programme grants open to any doctoral student at a Spanish university. The main objective of the scholarship is to carry out pre-doctoral research in universities or research centres in the United States in any discipline for a period of between 6 and 12 months. Daniel Marcos has been awarded one of the 7 national grants of the general programme and his stay at the University of California at Berkeley will last 6 months.