Diego Peña Gil, the new Scientific Director of CiQUS

Last Thursday 13th March, the Oportunius Research Professor Diego Peña took over the scientific direction of CiQUS, a centre attached to the USC and part of the CIGUS Network -an initiative promoted by the Xunta de Galicia that brings together the centres of the system that have accredited their scientific excellence-.

Peña, Principal Researcher at CiQUS since its foundation in 2011, takes over from Jose Luís Mascareñas and Dolores Pérez, who for more than a decade led the creation of a new model of research centre and, as a result of this work, CiQUS is today a benchmark in the network of Research Centres of the Galician University System (CIGUS Network). The new management will take up his legacy with the challenge of continuing along the path of excellence to fulfil the main mission of CiQUS: to contribute to the advancement of science at the forefront of knowledge.

This new designation, which is for a period of four years, extendable, comes at the proposal of the CiQUS Governing Committee following a favourable report from the External Scientific Committee. The Scientific Director is the fundamental figure on which the centre’s project is based: he is responsible for establishing strategic and scientific priorities, for institutional relations with other entities and, assisted by the Deputy Director, for executive functions that affect the whole of the activity carried out at the centre.

Diego Peña has a recognized scientific career, in 2004 he rejoined the USC as a Ramón y Cajal researcher, and has been Principal Investigator of CiQUS since its foundation. In 2008 he was appointed Full Professor, promoted to Professor of Organic Chemistry in 2020 (currently on leave of absence).  That same year he also received an ERC Synergy Grant (MolDAM) together with Leo Gross (IBM Research Zurich) and Jascha Repp (Universität Regensburg) and in 2024 he obtained a position as Oportunius Research Professor at the Axencia Galega de Innovación, attached to the USC. He is the author of more than 150 scientific articles (>8,500 citations, index h 49) and has received several medals and awards for research excellence from the Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ) and the Real Academia Galega de Ciencias (RAGC).