Seville, July 5, 2022. Noureddine Khiar El Wahabi has been appointed as the new director of the Isla de la Cartuja Scientific Research Center (cicCartuja), a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the University of Seville (US) and the Andalusian Regional Government. He replaces Javier Rojo, a CSIC Research Scientist, who has been in charge of the management for the last four years.
Noureddine Khiar is a CSIC Research Scientist and heads the Asymmetric Synthesis and Functional Nanosystems laboratory at the cicCartuja Chemical Research Institute. In addition, since July 2017 he has held the position of director of the Chemical Research Institute (IIQ), which he will combine with that of director of cicCartuja.
cicCartuja is a non-profit public institution whose main objective is the creation of knowledge and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens through scientific and technical research. Located in the Science and Technology Park of Seville, cicCartuja houses three mixed Institutes of the CSIC and the US: the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis, the Institute of Materials Science of Seville and the Institute of Chemical Research.
cicCartuja researchers develop their work in different but close scientific areas on the border between biology, chemistry and physics, which facilitates the approach to projects from different points of view and with complementary methodologies. The interdisciplinary nature is precisely the most unique feature of cicCartuja, its greatest particularity among centers of its nature. Likewise, the mixed composition of the three Institutes, with personnel from the CSIC and the US, allows it to combine the training of young people with the development of top-level research.
About Noureddine Khiar
Noureddine Khiar completed his higher education at the University of Strasbourg (France), where he received a multidisciplinary training, including a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, a Master’s degree in Pharmacology and Molecular Pharmacochemistry, and a PhD thesis in the field of asymmetric synthesis.
After several post-doctoral stays in the United States and Europe and a brief foray into the private sector as director of chemistry for a Technology-Based Company (TBC), he joined the newly created Institute of Chemical Research in 1997. He is currently director of the IIQ, a Scientific Researcher at the CSIC, Principal Investigator of the “Asymmetric Synthesis and Functional Nanosystems” group, and head of the Andalusian Regional Government research group “Organic Synthesis and Molecular Recognition” (FQM 313). He is co-author of nearly 100 scientific publications, 7 book chapters and co-inventor of seven patents, two of which are licensed. He has directed 12 Doctoral Theses and more than 20 Master’s Thesis. During the development of his career, he has participated in several scientific projects and has given lectures at specialized conferences, as well as in public and private research institutions.
His main scientific interests focus on the rational design of bionanomaterials and their application in biomedicine, and on the asymmetric synthesis of biologically relevant products. Additionally, he has participated in the creation of a EBT, “Nanosel”, started in 2015 and aimed at developing cancer diagnosis and treatment systems based on nanotechnology.