Bio
about
Josep Cornella
Bio
about
Josep Cornella
Dr. Josep Cornella
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz, 1
45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
cornella@kofo.mpg.de
+49(0)208/306-2428
Josep Cornella (Pep) was born in La Bisbal del Penedès, a small town in south Catalunya. He graduated in chemistry in 2008 from the University of Barcelona and carried MSc studies in the Department of Organic Chemistry studying the chemistry of allylboron reagents.
After completing his masters thesis, he moved to the United Kingdom to pursue doctoral studies in the group of Prof. Igor Larrosa (QMUL). In early 2012, he earned his PhD working on the use of aromatic carboxylic acids as aryl donors in metal-catalyzed decarboxylative reactions. He then moved back to Catalunya, where he joined the group of Prof. Ruben Martin (ICIQ) as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. There, he developed novel transformations involving Ni-catalyzed C–O bond activation and carbon dioxide insertion into organic molecules.
In 2015, Pep obtained a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship to carry out further postdoctoral studies in the group of Prof. Phil S. Baran at The Scripps Research Institute, California, USA. During this time at Scripps, he worked on the discovery and implementation of new transformations based on the concept of “redox-active esters” as practical and readily available partners for Ni- and Fe-catalyzed C–C bond forming reactions.
In spring 2017, he was appointed as a Max Planck Group Leader in the Department of Organometallic Chemistry at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
In summer of the same year, he obtained a Max Planck Research Group Leader (MPRGL) position in the same Institute, to create and lead the Sustainable Catalysis Laboratory.
Awards and Honors
2025 - Kende Lectureship, Universtiy of Rochester
2025 - OMCOS prize
2025 - Gassman Lectureship, University of Minnesota
2024 - 50 Scientists that Inspire, Cell Press
2023 - Presidential Lecture The Scripps Research Institute
2023 - 22/23 Chemical Communications Emerging Investigator Lectureship
2023 - 2023 Young Investigator Award Group Leader RSEQ
2022 - SN10 Scientists to Watch, class 2022, Science News Journal
2022 - Padwa Lectureship, Columbia University (NY, USA)
2022 - Merck Organic Chemistry Lecturer, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (USA)
2022 - Organometallics Distinguished Author Award
2021 - Novartis Early Career Award 2021
2021 - Kyoto Rising Star Lectureship (MSD Life Science Foundation - Japan)
2021 - Heinz Maier-Leibnitz-Preis 2021 (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)
2020 - ORCHEM Nachwuchspreis 2020
2020 - Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award 2020
2020 - Ruhrpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaft 2020
2020 - Otto Röhm Gedächtnisstiftung Forschung Preis 2020
2020 - C&EN Talented 12 - Class 2020
2020 - Dozentenpreis des Fonds (Fonds der Chemischen Industrie)
2020 - Marcial Moreno Mañas Award (Real Sociedad Española de Quimica-Catalan Section)
2020 - ERC Starting Grant
2019 - MS-CEC Young Researcher Award
2019 - Junior Scientist Program Fellowship (JSP - Bürgenstock)
2018 - Sachkostenzuschüsse Fonds der Chemischen Industrie
2018 - Thieme Chemistry Journals Award
2017 - Independent Max-Planck Research Group Leader
prior to MPI
2016 - TSRI Travel Award (Society of Fellows)
2015 - Beatriu de Pinos Postdoctoral Fellowship
2012 - Marie Curie Intraeuropean Fellowship (IEF)
Invited Lectures
Universitӓt Regensburg. Germany. January 2019
University of Geneva. Switzerland. April 2019
Bergische Universität Wuppertal. Germany. April 2019
Bürgenstock Conference. Switzerland. May 2019
University of Münster. Germany. May 2019
University of Basque Country. Spain. June 2019
Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. Germany. June 2019
ESOC-Wien. Austria. July 2019
Junge Chemiker Forum (JCF)-Ruhr. Essen, Germany. September 2019
ETH Zürich. Switzerland. November 2019
Novartis Basel. Switzerland. November 2019
University of Basel. Switzerland. November 2019
EPFL. Lausanne. Switzerland. November 2019
ICIQ. Tarragona. Spain. November 2019
UCBPharma. Brussels. Belgium. November 2019
Aulin-Erdtman Young Investigator Symposium (AEYIS 2019). Stockholm. Sweden. December 2019.
Queen Mary University. London. UK. December 2019
Philipps Universitӓt Marburg. Germany. December 2019
Chemical and Engineering News Futures Festival. August 2020 (online)
ACS-SBQ Virtual Meeting on Organic Synthesis and Catalysis. November 2020 (online)
Boehringer Ingelheim. Germany. July 2020 (online)
Novartis-Basel. Switzerland. November 2020 (online)
EuroJOC Virtual Symposium. July 2020 (online)
Merck MSD. USA. July 2020 (online)
RSC Main Group Seminar. UK. June 2020 (online)
RTW Aachen. Germany. December 2020 (online)
TU Berlin. Germany. September 2020 (online)
SynMet 2020. University of Copenhagen. July 2020 (online)
University of Toronto. January 2021 (online)
University of Heidelberg. January (online)
Phosphorous Chemistry Webinar. January 2021 (online)
University of Lyon. France. January 2021 (online)
Lecture at the Royal Society of Spain. February 2021 (online)
Bayer Early Career Excellence Award. Germany. March 2021 (online)
Chemidozententagung. Rostock. Germany. March 2021 (online)
Evotec. France. March 2021 (online)
AstraZeneca. Sweden. June 2021 (online)
University of Munich (LMU). June 2021 (online)
Marcial Moreno Manas Lecture. Spain. June 2021 (online)
Guest lecturer at the Organometallic Course at The Scripps Research Institute. USA. June 2021 (online)
ACS Fall 2021. USA. August 2021 (online)
WiFo 2021 – Liebig Symposium of Organic Synthesis. Germany. September 2021 (online)
SCS Fall Meeting 2021. Switzerland. September 2021 (online)
Virtual Symposium Main Group Catalysis – EuroJIC. September 2021 (online)
Abbvie. October 2021 (online)
University of the Basque Country. Challenges in Chemical Synthesis 2021. Spain. October 2021 (Online)
Max-Planck-Institut für Kolloid- und Grenzflächenforschung. Germany. October 2021 (online)
Corteva. November 2021 (online)
48th Symposium on Main Group Element Chemistry. Japan. December 2021 (online)
ACS Espanol-Webinar. December 2021 (online)
Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. Germany. November 2021 (online)
Student invited lecture at the University of Oxford. UK. February 2022 (online)
University of Barcelona. Spain. February 2022
Paul Knochel Birthday Symposium. LMU. Germany. February 2022 (online)
LIMA Laboratory CNRS. France. March 2022 (online)
Florida Heterocycles. USA. March 2022
Chemiedozententagung 2022. Saarbrücken. Germany. March 2022
Hengstberger Symposium on Element-Ligand cooperativity Cooperativity, University of Heidelberg. April 2022
School of Catalysis 2022. Cabourg, France, April 2022
University of Padova. Italy April 2022
Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. April 2022
University of California. Los Angeles. UCLA. USA. May 2022
California Institute of Technology. CalTech. USA. May 2022
University of California, Berkeley. USA. May 2022
University of California, Davis. USA. May 2022
Bayer Crop Science, Monheim. June 2022
Bienal Spanish Royal Society, Granada, Spain. June 2022
BASF, Ludwigshafen. July 2022
Gordon Research Conference Stereochemistry, USA. July 2022
ACS Fall-Organometallic Distinguished Author Award, Chicago, USA. August 2022
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Champaign, USA. August 2022
Centro Investigacion Quimica Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (CIQUS), Spain. September 2022
Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea. October 2022 (online)
Poznan University, Poland. October 2022 (online)
University of Gottingen, Germany. October 2022
CPT Symposium, Max Planck Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany. October 2022 (online)
Merck MSD, Rahway, USA. November 2022
Princeton University, USA. November 2022
Columbia University, USA. December 2022
New York University, USA. December 2022
Aarhus University, Denmark. January 2023
CARLA Winter School BASF-Heidelberg University. February 2023
ACS Spring, Indianapolis, USA. March 2023
University of Texas A&M, USA. March 2023
Rice University, USA. April 2023
Chemnitz Universitat, Germany. April 2023
Kyoto University, Japan. May 2023
Osaka University, Japan. May 2023
Nagoya University, Japan. May 2023
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. May 2023
University of Tokyo, Japan. May 2023
School of Organometallic Chemistry, Alicante, Spain. May 2023
Vertex Pharmaceuticals, USA, June 2023 (online)
Gordon Research Conference Organometallics, USA. July 2023
OMCOSXXI, Vancouver, Canada. July 2023
Dream Reactions with and without Hydrogen, Münster, Germany. August 2023
EUCOMCXXV, Alcala de Henares, Spain. September 2023
Novartis AG, Basel, Switzerland. September 2023
Caltech, USA. October 2023
Barluenga Conference 2023, Oviedo, Spain. November 2023
XIX Symposium Young Researchers Spain, Murcia. November 2023
Presidential Lecture, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA. Novermber 2023
GDCh Symposium, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. December 2023
University of Oxford, UK. January 2024
4th Alpine Conference in Medicinal Chemistry, St. Anton, Austria. January 2024
Harvard University, USA. February 2024
Duisburg-Essen Universität, February 2024
Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles (ICSN), Paris-Saclay, France, February 2024
The Netherlands’ Catalysis and Chemistry Conference, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, March 2024
The University of Chicago, USA, March 2024
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, March 2024
Brystol Myers-Squibb, Laurenceville and New Brunswick, USA, March 2024
ACS Spring 2024, New Orleans, USA, March 2024
Rencontres de Chimie Organique 2024, Paris-Saclay, France, April 2024
"Attilio Corbella" International Summer School on Organic Synthesis (ISOS), Gargnano, Italy, June 2024
International Isotope Society, Bad Soden, Germany, June 2024
Belgium Organic Chemistry Symposium, Liege, Belgium, July 2024
EuChemS, Dublin, July 2024
International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC), Fort Collins, USA, July 2024
Charles River Laboratory, UK, August 2024 (online)
Blue Danube Symposium Heterocyclic Chemistry, Prague, August 2024
Sanofi, Frankfurt, Germany, September 2024
Main Group Symposium Limburg Beilstein Institute, Limburg, Germany, September 2024
Brazil Meeting Organic Synthesis BMOS, Brazil, September 2024
University of Manchester, UK, October 2024
RACI, Organic24, Adelaide, Australia, November 2024
MIT, 2025 Boehringer Ingelheim Lectureship, USA, February 2025
Boehringer Ingelheim, Ridgefield, USA, February 2025
TU Berlin, Germany, March 2025
2025 Gassman Lectureship, Minnesota, Mineapolis, USA, March 2025
RESOLV 2025 Klausurtagung, Bielefeld, Germany, March 2025
University of Vienna, Austria, April 2025
12th Asian-European SMOS, Bologna, Italy, May 2025