MANUEL ALEJANDRO
PRESA SOTO

A. Presa Soto is currently a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Organic and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Oviedo (Spain). He obtained his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from the University of Oviedo in 2000, the same year he received the "Licenciatura con Grado" (Tesina) for his research on the synthesis of chiral polyphosphazenes under the supervision of Profs. G. A. Carriedo and F. J. García Alonso. Interested in the field of inorganic polymers, he pursued his Ph.D. studies (2001-2005, Principado de Asturias Grant) under the supervision of the mentioned professors, investigating the design of polyphosphazenes with incorporated chemical functionalities in chiral pockets. With his obtained Ph.D. (Summa Cum Laude), he was firstly awarded with a postdoctoral scholarship from the Spanish Government (MEC), and subsequently, he received a Curie Fellowship from the European Research Council (ERC) to undertake a 3-year postdoctoral stay (2006-2009) in Prof. Ian Mannes' research group at the University of Bristol (UK). During this time, his research focused on the synthesis and self-assembly of organometallic block copolymers. Thanks to a Juan de la Cierva contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), he returned in 2010 to U. Oviedo, to begin his independent research career as a group leader of the Inorganic Polymers Group. Awarded with a Ramón y Cajal contract (2014) and the later stabilization (2019) as Lecture (PCD), allowed him to consolidate his research group focused on the synthesis and self-assembly of block copolyphosphazenes with defined properties. In late 2019, he joined forces with Dr. J. García (U. Oviedo) to jointly create the Synthetic and Sustainable Chemistry research group (Group of Excellence by U. Oviedo). This new group uses the broad context provided by Green Chemistry to accommodate various research lines focused on the development of sustainable synthetic methodologies leading to high-value chemicals Throughout his career, Dr. Presa Soto has been the Principal Investigator of 10 research projects: (a) 3 National Projects; (b) 2 Regional Projects; (c) 1 project from the U. Oviedo; (d) 3 industry projects; and (e) 1 European-ERG (European Reintegration Grant) granted by the ERC. Additionally, he has been a member of the Executive Committee and Vice-coordinator of a working group in the European COST-SIPs action (Smart Inorganic Polymers). He is coauthor of 57 scientific articles (37 as the main author, 48 in Q1 journals, approx. 1 out of every 3 published in General Chemistry journals such as ANGEW, JACS, Chem. Eur. J., Chem Commun., Green Chem., ChemSusChem), 3 perspective articles (one in Science-AAAS), and 3 book chapters. He presented 42 contributions at national and international conferences (10 invited lectures). He is currently (2020-) a member of the Editorial Board of Materials Today Communications (Elsevier) and has served as a scientific reviewer for 33 different journals in various chemistry fields (i.e. Science, Nature Commun., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Green Chemistry, Inorg. Chem. Organometallics, Macromolecules and Chem. Mater, etc.). He is an evaluator for the national research agencies of Spain (ANECA) and Chile (CONICYT); and for the Linz Institute of Technology (Austria). He has supervised 5 PhD Theses (one co-tutored with U. Chile), 2 Bachelor's, and 10 Master's Theses [one co-tutored with U. Kiel (Germany)].