Miquel Pericàs and the Creation of ICIQ

The distinguished research career of Professor Miquel Pericàs started in the mid-1970s and has provided him with a well-deserved international reputation. This becomes evident in this issue of Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis with the scientific contributions that many colleagues with a personal or professional connection to Miquel have dedicated to him. In the present brief note we highlight the essential role played by Miquel in the creation and development of the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ). From the beginning, Miquel Pericàs took the helm of the new project and initiated the search and selection of a group of renowned national and foreign scientists. Created in 2000, it started activities in 2004 after more than four years of very hard work. Miquel Pericàs is a meticulous scientist and a perfectionist, and these personal characteristics spread over his scientific contributions. When defining the ICIQ project, he took care of every tiny detail in the setting up of the new building, including visits to several chemical laboratories across Europe and the United States, accompanied by the architect in charge of the project. Miquel aimed at reproducing the best ideas into his project, including benches, hoods, distribution of laboratories and common spaces. He used to say that an architect is usually a competent designer but almost ignorant of what the real needs of a chemist are. In Spain and other countries, scientists with permanent positions tend to concentrate in groups of variable dimensions, hierarchically organised, which results in optimisation of functions, enhanced productivity, and easier access to funding sources, but the system pays the cost of a limited renovation of members and ideas, and the difficulties of the younger scientists to start independent careers and to develop new original projects. In this respect, the creation of ICIQ by Miquel Pericàs represented a true revolution. ICIQ's Group Leaders are totally independent and selected after the recommendation of an external Scientific Advisory Board. They can of course develop all sort of collaborative projects with their colleagues at ICIQ or abroad, but no other scientists belong to their groups on a permanent basis. Furthermore, their contracts are permanent, but continuity is not fully guaranteed, as the scientific results are subject to evaluation by the Board every 5 years. Post-docs and PhD students constitute thus the bulk of each research group. Besides, the Institute provides an outstanding set of instrumentation, technicians, and management facilities. Subsequent creation of a junior Group-Leader program was also a success and allowed some of the best young researchers to become later senior researchers at ICIQ. Visibility along the globe increased fast so that ICIQ became soon an international centre of excellence for research in various areas of Chemistry. These initial successes were recognized with the awards of a national Consolider Grant, several ERC Grants at the starting Consolidator Proof of Concept and Advanced levels, and by the not less challenging Severo Ochoa Accreditation. In this manner, ICIQ became one of the research Centres of Excellence in our country. Not less important was the development within ICIQ of a unit devoted to technology transfer, which has also been of great success over the years. An example of Miquel's tenacious attitude and creative ideas to solve emerging unexpected problems took place the day of the official opening of the ICIQ, in the presence of the President of the Government of Catalonia and a full set of political authorities, chemistry colleagues and industrial partners. Unfortunately, as it is often the case, the building was completed but most of the labs were still unfinished the day of the ceremony. Knowing that the President deeply admired German and Swiss quality and technologies, Miquel decided to decorate a few lab spaces with all the furniture, benches, and hoods, already in place but not yet fixed and, of course, without plumbing nor electricity connections, and then he organised a short visit for the cortege of authorities accompanying the President. As predicted, during his speech afterwards, the President highlighted the excellence of the new institution, not only due to the quality and international prestige of its scientists, but also and especially because he was informed that laboratories were identical as those of the ETH Institute in Zürich. Miquel Pericàs in action once again. With more than 20 years under Miquel's visionary direction, ICIQ has grown to a spectacular position, being world-wide known and receiving students and guests from nearly all over the world. No doubt, Miquel Pericàs has a large responsibility in growing from scratch this acclaimed chemistry research Institution in Spain and fully deserves our recognition and gratitude for this outstanding accomplishment.