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Gabriel Morales Sánchez

Dr. Gabriel Morales, full professor of Chemical Engineering at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, Madrid, Spain). Heobtained BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (1995-2000) and received his PhD in 2005 at URJC (PhD Outstanding Award) working on the synthesis, characterization and application of sulfonic acid-functionalized mesostructured materials. This thesis work was awarded with the best PhD Dissertation prize by SECAT. He has been visiting researcher at the University of California at Santa Barbara (USA) in 2004 and 2006, under the supervision of Prof. Brad Chmelka; and at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow) in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Peter Cormack. His main research lines have been focused on the synthesis, characterization and catalytic application of zeolites and mesoporous materials, especially organically functionalized mesostructured materials, enzyme immobilization, valorization of glycerol to obtain oxygenated additives for fuel applications, production of biodiesel over heterogeneous acid catalysts, and, during the last 10 years, the catalytic valorization of lignocellulosic biomass. He is founding member of the High-Performance Chemical and Environmental Engineering Research Group at URJC (GIQA; www.giqa.es). During the last decade his scientific achievements have been focused on the design of catalysts with enhanced properties and their application in the development of sustainable chemical processes for the valorization of biomass towards the production of biofuels and added-value bio-products. During all his research career, he has published around 80 JCR-indexed documents with high impact in the field of Chemical and Environmental Engineering with over 5500 bibliographic citations (SCOPUS, h-index 41). Moreover, he has published 7 book chapters and edited one book (related with biomass valorization). These numbers reflect both the quality of his publications and the high impact of his results and achievements in the scientific community. Regarding the participation in scientific conferences, he has been involved in 115 contributions, most of them in high-impact international events. To support this scientific career, he has participated with a prominent role in a high number of R&D projects with public competitive national and European funding (20 projects). Also, he has been involved in 15 research and service contracts with companies (being principal investigator in several of them). He is currently co-leading a Horizon Europe and a Spain national project, both related to the catalytic valorization of lignocellulosic biomass for the production of sustainable aviation fuel, within the circular bioeconomy and sustainability concepts. SAFADCAT. Reference: PID2021-122334OB-I00 Project; https://www.safadcat.es/. BIOCTANE. European Commission. HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-03. https://www.bioctane.eu/.

Director of the URJC laboratory specialized in the preparation of catalysts (LABCAT). Co-director of Smart-E2 institutional Chair at URJC (https://smarte2urjc.senialab.com/), dedicated to the integration of Smart City solutions to enhance energy efficiency in buildings, with contracts with multiple companies (like Alai Secure, Signify, Getronics, Schneider Electric, IBM, etc.). Director of the Industrial Engineering Master at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos since 2021. Member of the Engineering & Architecture Commission at URJC. Academic Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer at URJC in 2018-2021, with responsibilities in the relationship with external companies and firms, and the development of public-private research and service contracts. Responsibilities in the Energy Sustainability program at URJC, collaborating with the Unit of Energy Efficiency in several projects applied to URJC buildings and campuses. Member of the EURACE Label Committee in ANECA and ENAEE since 2018.

Research profiles:

URL Web: https://gestion2.urjc.es/pdi/ver/gabriel.morales

Keywords: Environmental Catalysis; Biofuels; Bioproducts; Mesostructured Materials; Zeolites; Fine Chemistry; Green Chemistry.