Anna Company Casadevall received Dalton Young Researchers Award

Thursday, 24. February 2011

Dr. Anna Company Casadevall was awarded in recognition of her research in bioinorganic chemistry, and in particular the development of models for copper and non-heme iron proteins involved in oxygen activation.

Company Casadevall and Prof. Tasker

As part of the recognition for this award, Anna Company Casadevall was invited to deliver three different talks in the UK. “Specifically, I was in the University of Southampton, Queens University Belfast and on February 10th in University of Sheffield” she said.

The photo is from the Queens University Belfast where the award and the corresponding medal was officially given by Prof. Peter Tasker who is President of the Dalton Divison of the Royal Society of Chemistry.  

Since April 2009 Dr. Anna Company Casadevall has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the UniCat group of Prof. Dr. Driess at TU Berlin. Her postdoctoral position is financed by the European Union by means of a renowned Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship and her current work is focused on the study of the mechanism of oxygen activation at nickel centers.

The Dalton Young Researchers Award is for inorganic research chemists under 27 years of age. It runs annually. The award winner receives £1000, a medal and a certificate. The Dalton Division is part of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences.

The Dalton Division promotes the study and dissemination of all aspects of inorganic chemistry. The Division organises symposia featuring special lectures and regional meetings. It offers awards, bursaries and fellowships for young members.  

CV of Anna Company Casadevall

Anna Company Casadevall was born in Banyoles (Catalonia, Spain) in 1982. She studied Chemistry at the University of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) and she graduated in 2004. In 2005, she started her PhD studies in the Department of Chemistry at the same University in the "Bioinorganic and Supramolecular Chemistry Group" under the supervision of Dr. Miquel Costas.

These studies were financed by a FPU-Fellowship granted by the Spanish government.  During her PhD work she could perform two three-month research stays in the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, United States) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Lawrence Que Jr. and in the Max Planck Institute für Bioanorganische Chemie (Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany) with Prof. Dr. Karl Wieghardt.

Her PhD work was mainly focused in the development of model systems of O2-activating proteins containing copper and iron. Specifically, she developed dinuclear copper complexes as models of the enzyme tyrosinase and she synthesised novel non-heme iron complexes as catalysts for the oxidation of alkanes and olefins.

She obtained her PhD in December 2008 and her thesis was awarded with a PhD prize from the University of Girona. She was also a finalist in the European Young Chemist Award (PhD level) in 2008. Since April 2009 she is working as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Dr. Drieß in the Technische Universität Berlin (Germany). 

Her postdoctoral position is financed by the European Union by means of a renowned Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship and her current work is focused on the study of the mechanism of O2 activation at nickel centers.