Jordi is an organic chemist working on the development of more economical and sustainable processes guided by a mechanistic understanding of organic reactions. He earned his PhD from the University of Barcelona and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute in California. Since 2013, he has developed his research career in the UK, at Imperial College London and The University of Manchester, where he currently holds an Honorary Professor position. Starting in 2024, he will lead a research group at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). His innovative approach to the kinetic analysis of chemical reaction profiles has empowered his research group, and many others, to develop more efficient processes in a rational manner.

Bahareh Khezri's academic journey spans the globe, starting in Iran and taking her through Singapore (ASTAR, NTU, CARES, NRF/CREATE) the UK (University of Cambridge), and esteemed European institutions (VSCHT (CZ), ICIQ and URV (Spain)). With expertise in chemistry and materials science, she earned her Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore in 2013. Her research focuses on multifunctional materials for energy applications like water splitting and CO2 reduction, involving precise tuning of catalyst properties and crafting nanomaterials. She also explores synthetic micro/nanorobots with applications in environmental and biomedical engineering, offering innovative solutions for pollution remediation and drug delivery. Her work addresses critical materials science challenges, aiming for a sustainable and advanced future. 

Karim Lekadir in an ICREA Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Barcelona. He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London and was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. He investigates new data science techniques for trustworthy and ethical artificial intelligence in medicine. He has been PI in 12 EU-funded projects, coordinated 5 Horizon projects, and was awarded an ERC Consolidator grant to investigate new AI techniques tailored to resource-limited settings.

Anaëlle Maury is an astrophysicist (PhD Université Paris VII, 2009) who investigates the birth of stars like our Sun, and the physics to build the first seeds for planets around them. She is now an ICREA research professor with the Institute for Space Sciences, where she will develop her group with the ERC Advanced Grant PEBBLES. Her research has been focusing on understanding processes responsible for the properties of stars when they form in our Galaxy, and on the role of magnetic fields in the construction of protoplanetary disks. At ICE, her team will focus on studying the physics at work for evolution of astrophysical dust into small solid particles which will become planetary systems, using state-of-the-art astronomical data from the most advanced observatories as well as models of star formation including all the relevant physical processes.

Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez is ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya (IBEC). Manuel is a bioengineer working on advanced biomaterials for cell and tissue engineering, to develop in vitro models and as tools for mechanobiology. His group engineer materials to provide control of the local cellular microenvironment, both biochemically and biophysically. Manuel holds an ERC AdG to develop the next generation of viscoelastic materials to understand this important property of the extracellular matrix in the context of tissue regeneration. Manuel was Professor of Applied Physics in Valencia until his relocation to Glasgow in 2013 as Chair of Biomedical Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy for Arts and Sciences.