Félix Freire Iribarne

Félix Freire (Marín, 1977) received his B.S. (2000), M.S. (2002) from the University of Santiago de Compostela. He got his Ph.D. (2005) from the same University working under the supervision of Prof. Ricardo Riguera and Emilio Quiñoá, working on the study of the absolute configuration of diols and triols by using 1H NMR. During his Ph.D. he spent 4 months at Prof. Jesús Jiménez Barbero (CIB-CSIC, Madrid) to study the peptide folding by NMR.

In 2005 he performed a first postdoctoral stage in Prof. Jesús Jiménez Barbero and Dr. Juan Luis Asensio group (IQOG-CSIC (Lora Tamayo), Madrid) to work on peptide folding and protein/protein interactions by using NMR. In 2006, he moved to USA to work under the supervision of Prof. Samuel H. Gellman in Foldamers (MEC-Fulbright). His research was focused on the design, synthesis and structural studies of parallel b-sheets that fold in water.

In 2009 he moved back to the USC to work in the helical polymers field as a Juan de la Cierva researcher. In 2010 he got the prestigious Ramón y Cajal research contract, to continuously working in the chiral polymer field. In 2012 he was awarded with the “SUSCHEM award” in the category of POSTDOC. In 2016 he was appointed Associate Professor at USC. In 2023, he became Full Professor and was awarded the GEQOR José Barluenga Medal. 

His research is based on determining the relationship between monomer and the helical structure adopted by its corresponding polymer, the study of different chiral amplification mechanisms, and the formation of chiral nanostructures.