During his visit to Tarragona, the 2005 Nobel Laureate visited the University where he met with undergraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral students and with the management team

Professor Richard R. Schrock, an American chemist and university professor, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005, answered questions from six URV undergraduates and doctoral students during a meeting lasting over an hour in the URV’s television studio. He was asked questions relating to his scientific career and research contributions and about the links between universities and companies. Time was also given to more personal questions, such as when he decided in which area he was going to concentrate his research or what was the best advice he has received as a scientist. One of the issues that generated many questions was cooperation between academia and industry and whether it is necessary for scientists to protect the results of their research.

After the meeting, he also visited the Rector’s Office of the URV, where he signed the honorary book of the University and met with the management team.

The Nobel Laureate’s visit to Tarragona has been promoted by the URV innovation centre AMIC (Environmental and Catalysis Applications) and the Tarragona Smart Mediterranean City Foundation, with the support of AEQT (Chemical Industry Association of Tarragona). In addition to visiting the URV, Professor Shrock met the Tarragona business network and the Comte de Rius High School and gave a seminar at the Sescelades Campus.

Richard Royce Schrock (4 January 1945, Berné, Indiana, USA) studied chemistry at the universities of California (he graduated in 1967) and Harvard, where he was awarded his doctorate in 1971. He completed his post doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom).

In 1972, he was hired by the chemical company E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, where he was part of George Parshall’s research group. Three years later, he entered the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he became a professor in 1980 and where he still teaches.

Among the awards he has won throughout his career are prizes in Inorganic Chemistry and Organometallic Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. Along with Frenchman Yves Chauvin and American Robert H. Grubbs, he won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in the field of olefinic metathesis, especially in alkenes.