The jury of the cicCartuja Ebro Foods 2018 award met on 25 February 2019 at the cicCartuja and after the corresponding deliberation, has agreed to award the following prizes in this ninth edition of the awards:

First Prize ex aequo to Dongling Geng from the ICMS and José Alberto Carmona from the IIQ; First Runner-up ex aequo to Alejandra Guerra from the IIQ and Belén Naranjo from the IBVF; Second Runner-up ex aequo to Pablo Ríos from the IIQ and Nuria García-Moncada from the ICMS.

The resolution of this ninth edition of the awards has been especially difficult due to the high level of the works presented, which is evidenced by the high impact indices of the journals where they have been published. The winning works correspond to the “article of the month” of May and October 2018.

Dongling Geng’s work shows that it is possible to control the tone of the light generated by LED lights and direct it in a certain direction. José Alberto Carmona’s work provides a new tool for the efficient synthesis of enantiomerically pure compounds with applications in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical or cosmetic industries.

Winners of the cicCartuja Ebro Foods Award 2018

The “cicCartuja-Ebro Foods” Award recognises the work carried out by young researchers under 31 years of age, who have previously published scientific articles in prestigious international journals, in areas such as chemistry, biochemistry or materials science. Since 2011, the Isla de la Cartuja Scientific Research Centre (cicCartuja) and the Ebro Foods Foundation have awarded these prizes aimed at promoting the career of young researchers working at cicCartuja – a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Regional Government of Andalusia and the University of Seville. In this edition, the Prize is worth 20,000 euros, of which 10,000 euros are for the winner, 5,000 euros for the first runner-up and another 5,000 euros for the second runner-up. These amounts have been donated by the Ebro Foods Foundation, which – through its president, Antonio Hernández Callejas – has been supporting the scientific excellence of young researchers at cicCartuja and the transfer of knowledge from the laboratory to society.

Jury of the award

With F. Javier Rojo Marcos, Director of cicCartuja, as President, the Evaluation Committee was made up of Salvador Loring, Director of Institutional Relations at Ebro Foods; Margarita Paneque Sosa, Institutional Coordinator of the CSIC in Andalusia and Extremadura; Julián Martínez, Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Seville; Jorge Diz, Manager of the Business Circle of the Cartuja Science and Technology Park; Luis Pérez Díaz, Director of Innovation and Projects at the Cartuja Science and Technology Park; Juan Pedro Espinós, from the Institute of Materials Science of Seville (ICMS); José Manuel Pardo, Deputy Director of the Institute of Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF) and Noureddine Khiar, Director of the Institute of Chemical Research (IIQ). The acting manager of cicCartuja, Pablo Romero, acted as secretary of the commission.