Kleij, Arjan W.
ICREA Research Professor and ICIQ Group Leader at Institut Català d'Investigació Química (ICIQ).
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
Short biography
MSc (with honors) and PhD (Cum Laude) from the University of Utrecht (NL). In 2002 he moved to Spain as a NWO TALENT fellow with Javier de Mendoza, followed by another postdoc at the University of Amsterdam (NL) working with Joost Reek. He also held various scientific positions in the industry at Avantium and Hexion. In 2006, he returned to Spain as an ICREA Researcher and ICIQ Group Leader, and was promoted to ICREA Research Professor in 2011. He is current member of several advisory (ChemCatChem, Journal of CO2 Utilization, ASC Sust Chem Engin) and editorial boards (ChemSusChem, Molecules). Guest editorships for Catal. Sci. & Technol., ChemSusChem and Adv. Synth. Catal.; chairman of the CDCC conference in Portugal in 2016, chair of the EUGSC-4 conference in 2019; Associate Editor for Organic Chemistry Frontiers. Citations >15200, h-index of around 70. He received the 2020 RSEQ Excellence Award and became a FRSC in 2021.
Research interests
The research of my group focuses on the valorization of small molecules (including CO2) into value-added chemicals and materials. We design new and more sustainable catalytic methods for their conversion and use in organic synthesis. We use homogeneous catalysis approaches based on metal complexes and/or organocatalysts, and investigate important process features such as catalyst recycling, energy/material efficiencies and overall selectivity/reactivity profiles. In all these endeavors, we wish to solve challenging stereoselective and enantioselective transformations including those focusing on the preparation of compounds featuring challenging quaternary stereocenters.