Chemical that wanted to be physical

1998/05/01 Kortabarria Olabarria, Beñardo - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika
• Biografiak

The chemist Avelino Corma was born in Moncofar, Castellón de la Plana, in 1951. In 1974 he obtained a degree in chemistry from the University of Valencia and two years later a doctorate from the Complutense of Madrid. Since 1987 he has been a professor at the Higher Council for Scientific Research. Founder and director of the Institute of Chemical Technology, he also worked for two years at Queen’s University in Canada.

Avelino Corma leads a research group in the field of catalysis. Several catalysts created in this group have been put into practice, and currently in refineries such as Cepsa and Texaco catalysts are used by Moncofar researcher. In the most prestigious journals in the field of chemistry (Chemical Review, Catalysis Review, Journal of Molecular Catalisys, Applied Catalisys, Journal of Catalisys, etc.) their work is frequent and has already written more than 300 research papers. In the same sense, he has published three books: Catalyc cracking: Catalyst, chemistry and kinetics, The Role of FCC in the modern Refinery, and Zeolites as catalysts in Petrochemistry and Refining.

As he has now received the Iberdrola Prize, he has others, among which stand out the Dupont Research Prize obtained in 1995 and the Leonardo Torres Quevedo National Research Prize.

With the Iberdrola Award, Avelino Corma has taken 12 million and a scholarship of 2 million for someone from his team. Avelino Cormara has been selected among 58 researchers in physics, chemistry, mathematics and technology. The Nobel laureates Dudley Herschbach, Jean-Marie Lehn and Anthony Hewish, the Pedro Pascual Prize “Ramon y Cajal”, the editors George Basbas and Peter Gölitz, and the director of Iberdrola, Jaime Echevarria, have formed the jury that has awarded the prize to Corma.

In addition to the aforementioned companies, Iberdrola is also a consultant for companies such as Exxon, Unocak, BP and Shell and maintains an intense relationship with companies such as Repsol or Rhone-Poulenc.