RWTH Professor Gets ERC Consolidator Grant

Professor Daniele Leonori from the RWTH Institute of Organic Chemistry will receive funding from the European Research Council in the form of an ERC Consolidator Grant. This prestigious funding program supports scholars at a point in their careers when they are consolidating their research projects. To be eligible for funding, the research topic must be groundbreaking, ambitious, and feasible. Professor Leonori will receive nearly two million euros in funding over five years. This is now the second time he has been awarded ERC funding, having previously succeeded in obtaining an ERC Starting Grant. He acquired this funding while a faculty member of the University of Manchester and then transferred it to RWTH last year.

Professor Daniele Leonori conducts research in the field of organic chemistry. His focus is on the development of novel catalytic methods for chemical synthesis. Thanks to the support of the ERC Starting Grant, he and his research group have already succeeded in shortening the synthesis of several blockbuster drugs. The ERC Consolidator Grant will now enable the team to work more intensively on boron chemistry. This research is vital because developing innovative strategies for producing and using borylated molecules is essential for discovering and manufacturing many of the products we all use on a daily basis. The ultimate goal is to find new ways to simplify the production of complex and high-value pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Leonori holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield. He has conducted research at RWTH Aachen University, the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, and the University of Bristol. In 2014, he transferred to the University of Manchester, where, in 2020, he became a professor. Last year, he joined RWTH as a professor of organic chemistry. In addition to ERC Grants, Leonori’s research awards include the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (2014), an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship (2017), the Harrison-Meldola Memorial Prize (2018), the AstraZeneca Award for Outstanding Achievements in Organic Synthesis (2019), the Philip Leverhulme Prize (2019), the Blavatnik Laureate for Chemistry in the UK (2020), and the EuChemS Division of Organic Chemistry Young Investigator Award (2021).