David
Díaz Díaz

David Díaz Díaz was born in 1974 (Tenerife), where he studied Chemical Sciences at the University of La Laguna. He obtained his PhD degree in Chemistry at the same University under the direction of Professor Víctor Martín García. His doctoral thesis focused on the synthesis of natural products and the development of new synthetic methodologies using transition metal complexes. In 2002, he joined Professor M. G. Finn's research group as a postdoctoral researcher at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in San Diego (California, USA) where he remained for 4 years. During this period he worked closely with two-timesNobel Laureate Professor K. B. Sharpless. His research focused on the chemistry of formamidines, bioconjugation techniques, first applications of “click” chemistry in materials, development of functional polymers and soft materials. Since 2006, he has held various positions in academia and industry, including the positions of Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), and Senior Chemist at the multinational The Dow Chemical Company (materials division) carrying out his work in Switzerland and The Netherlands. In 2009, he simultaneously obtained a position as Senior Scientist at the Spanich National Research Council (CSIC) and a position as Experienced Researcher of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the University of Regensburg (Germany), where he joined in January 2010 and established his independent research group. In 2013, he was the first Spanish scientist to be awarded the Heisenberg Professorship of the German Scientific Research Foundation (DFG) and obtained the position of Associate Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Regensburg. In 2017, he received honorary adjunct professorships from the universities of Jiangsu (Chinese Society for Advanced Materials) and Nigeria (African Nanoscience-Nanotechnology Initiative); Honorary membership of the Argentine Society of Organic Chemistry; German Habilitation and permanent member status (Privatdozent, venia legendi) of the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy of the University of Regensburg. In January 2019, he joined the University of La Laguna as Senior Distinguished Researcher (Senior Beatriz Galindo Researcher) (Tenerife, Spain), for which he requested a leave of absence from her position at the CSIC. Among numerous national and international awards, he has received the Young Researcher Award, PNG (2014, Japan), the RSEQ Research Excellence Award (2021, Spain) and the International Society for Advanced Materials Award (2022, Sweden), as well as the Research Institutional Award of the ULL (Senior category; 2024, Spain), among others. In 2021 he obtained accreditation as a Full Professor by the National Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation of Spain (ANECA) and at the end of 2023 he obtained the Full Professor position at the ULL. He is a member of several scientific societies (ACS, RSC, RSEQ, GDCh, SSB) and, among other editorial work, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine Gels (2015-2024) and since 2024 Member of the Editorial Board of Soft Matter. During his career he has published 235 works in journals included in JCR, in addition to several book chapters and outreach articles. He has organized several scientific conferences and his current research mainly focuses on the development of advanced functional materials for biomedical, catalytic, coatings and energy applications.