Fitxa persona

María José Aurell Piquer has been a Full Professor in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Valencia since 1995. She graduated in Chemistry in 1985 and obtained her PhD in 1990. At the University of Valencia, she has participated in various research lines, including those dedicated to the reactivity of unsaturated carboxylic acid dianions, systems for the transport and controlled release of bioactive substances, and the design and synthesis of macrocyclic ligands. In the Theoretical Organic Chemistry group, she has carried out studies of the mechanisms of various reactions: Diels-Alder, 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions, Povarov, oxa-Povarov, and reactions catalyzed by N-heterocyclic carbenes.

Since 2021, she has been part of the Molecular Electron Density Theory (MEDT) group, studying inter- and intramolecular ionic Diels-Alder reactions and electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions in deactivated benzenes and pyridines. Recently, she has analyzed the effect of substituents and Lewis acids on various nucleophilic substitution reactions.

Throughout his research career, she has collaborated with various research teams at the University of Valencia, carrying out conformational analyses of new diquats, computational studies of MOFs, and mechanistic studies to determine the relevance of acid catalysis in the synthesis of indoles.

This research activity has resulted in 83 publications, 2 patents, and 32 presentations at national and international conferences. She has also participated in 24 funded projects. She has an h-index of 24, according to Google Scholar, and has been awarded six six-year research periods (the most recent in 2023).