We congratulate Nuno Maulide, CeMM Adjunct PI and Professor at the University of Vienna, for receiving the ERC Advanced Grant - which makes him one of the very few people in Europe who have won all the European Research Council grants in a row (ERC Starting Grant in 2011, ERC Consolidator Grant in 2016, ERC Proof of Concept Grant in 2018 and 2023). 

In his new ERC project "C-HANCE" hosted by the University of Vienna, Nuno Maulide explores the reactivity of positively charged carbon atoms (known as carbocations). Although many reactions involving carbocations are fundamental to organic chemistry - parts of which are even taught in basic chemistry courses worldwide - they reveal surprising chemical behaviour when deviating from conventional reaction conditions. Carbon atoms can be manipulated at more distant positions, leading to unexpected and previously unexplored reactivities and molecule structures.

Within the scope of this project, Nuno Maulide and his team will develop various methods that open up new synthesis pathways for novel substances with broad applications, ranging from material chemistry to drug synthesis and fragrance synthesis. Particularly promising is the so-called C-H functionalization, where normally unreactive C-H bonds are selectively broken and replaced by other bonds - an approach with the potential to revolutionize the already highly active research field.

Nuno Maulide joined CeMM as Adjunct PI in November 2018. He is Head of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and has been professor of organic synthesis at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Vienna since October 2013. Nuno also leads the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Entropy-Oriented Drug Design. He researches the development of new synthesis methods as well as the synthesis of organic compounds that can be used for targeted biological, biochemical, and medical applications. He is an elected member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and was named Austrian Scientist of the Year in 2019.