Associate Professor
Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry
Universidad de Alcalá
estibaliz.merino@uah.es
ORCID: 0000-0002-2960-5404
Web of Science ResearcherID: D-6241-2011
Estíbaliz obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry, specializing in Organic Chemistry, from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). In 2007, she completed her PhD studies under the supervision of Prof. Carmen Carreño García, receiving the distinction Summa Cum Laude and the Extraordinary Doctorate Award. Her doctoral research focused on the synthesis and photochromic properties of chiral sulfinyl azobenzenes, as well as the total synthesis of natural products from the Epoformin family. During her PhD, she carried out a research stay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the group of Prof. Timothy F. Jamison, where she worked on the synthesis of ladder polyethers.
Postdoctoral Research
After completing her PhD, she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and joined the groups of Prof. Magnus Rueping at Goethe University Frankfurt and RWTH Aachen University (Germany), where she worked on the development of novel organocatalytic cascade reactions for the enantioselective synthesis of biologically active molecules.
In 2010, she obtained a Juan de la Cierva contract and joined the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ, CSIC-UPV) in Valencia, working with Prof. Avelino Corma. Her research focused on the design of hybrid organic-inorganic materials and the study of new ruthenium complexes in metathesis reactions.
She then joined the Institute of General Organic Chemistry (IQOG, CSIC) in Madrid with a JAE-Doc contract, working in the group of Prof. Félix Sánchez. There, she developed bifunctional porous polymeric materials and explored their application in cascade catalytic processes.
In 2013, she moved to Switzerland to join the group of Prof. Cristina Nevado at the University of Zurich (UZH) as a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin (Scientific Researcher). At UZH, she led research on metal- and photoredox-catalyzed radical cascade reactions, and conducted mechanistic studies using DFT calculations.
Independent career
Her independent research career began in 2019 when she was awarded a “Programa de Atracción de Talento” contract (Type 1) by the Community of Madrid. She joined the University of Alcalá (UAH), where she established her own research line focused on sustainable organic transformations, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, and organic electrosynthesis. Her work covers various areas of catalysis, including homogeneous catalysis (asymmetric, organocatalysis, metal catalysis, photocatalysis, and photoredox), as well as mechanistic studies supported by computational chemistry.