Junior Group Leader
E-mail: alberto.perez-bitrian@hu-berlin.de
Alberto was born in 1992 in Huesca, a small town in the north of Spain, close to the Pyrenees. He studied Chemistry at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), obtaining his BSc in 2014 and his MSc in "Molecular Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis" in 2015.
PhD studies
He pursued doctoral studies at the University of Zaragoza, funded by a FPU fellowship, and obtained his PhD in July 2020. He worked in trifluoromethyl gold chemistry under the supervision of Dr. Babil Menjón and Prof. Dr. José M. Casas. During this period, he was a visiting student in the group of Prof. Dr. Tobias Ritter at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung (Germany, 3 months, 2018), where he worked on late-stage functionalization, and in the group of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hasenstab-Riedel at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany, 3 months, 2019), getting familiar with superacidic media and strong oxidizers. Additionally, he obtained a Master’s Degree in "Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Language Teaching", with specialty "Physics and Chemistry".
Postdoctoral period
In October 2020 he joined the group of Prof. Dr. Sebastian Hasenstab-Riedel at the FU Berlin as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and later as a Rising Star Junior Fellowship (Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy of the FU Berlin). During this period, he addressed the synthesis and investigation of first-row transition metal pentafluoroorthotellurate (teflate) complexes to understand the coordination effects of such ligand to metal centers.
Independent career
In July 2023 he moved to the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where he is currently a junior group leader funded by a Liebig fellowship of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie.
Awards and funding
2023 - Liebig Fellowship - Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FCI)
2023 - Best flash presentation of the Symposium 16 - New frontiers in Coordination Chemistry. Applications from the Chemistry World to Physics and Biology - at the XXXIX Biennial Meeting of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry
2023 - Rising Star Junior Fellowship - Department of Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy of the Freie Universität Berlin
2020 - Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for postdoctoral researchers
2019 - Erasmus+ grant in mobility activities for PhD students, European Commission through the Erasmus+ program
2016 - PhD Fellowship within the “Formación de Profesorado Universitario” program (FPU, Program for University Teachers Training) - Spanish Ministerio de Educación Cultura y Deporte
- 2019 - Fellowship for short research stays (FU Berlin)
- 2018 - Fellowship for short research stays (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung)
2015 - Extraordinary Final Master’s Award 2014/2015, Master Program in "Molecular Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis" - Universidad de Zaragoza
2015 - Temporal contract as Early-Stage Researcher - Universidad de Zaragoza
2014 - “Gregorio Casañal Poza” Prize 2013/2014 (to the second-best grade of the Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry) - Faculty of Science of the University of Zaragoza
2014 - JAE INTRO Grant for University Students (Introduction to Research) - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
2013 - Assistantship in the Inorganic Chemistry Department of the University of Zaragoza - Spanish Ministerio de Educación Cultura y Deporte
2011 - Excellence Grant 2011/2012 - University of Zaragoza
2010 - Excellence Grant 2010/2011 - University of Zaragoza
2010 - National A Levels Award 2009/2010 in Spain
2010 - Extraordinary A Levels Award 2009/2010 of the Autonomous Community of Aragón (Spain)