Vicent Moliner

Bio and research interests
V. Moliner graduated in Chemistry from the University of Valencia in 1988. After a brief experience in the industry as a principal investigator in the R & D laboratory of the Thermostables Division of the company Ferro Enamel Española S.A., he obtained a scholarship to do his PhD thesis. He received his doctorate from the University Jaume I in 1993, under the direction of Prof. Andrés. The thesis was oriented to the study of the enzymatic reactivity by means of quantum methods. In 1996 he obtained a scholarship from The Leverhulme Trust to carry out a post-doctoral stay with Prof. I. H. Williams at the University of Bath (1996/97). During this time, he was introduced into the hybrid QM/MM methodology, working on the development of algorithms that would allow the location and characterization of transition state structures in large systems (GRACE program). The first transition structure was published by QM/MM methods, characterized as such, for an enzymatic reaction (Chem. Comm. 1997). He obtained the position of Associated Professor in 1998 and that of Full Professor in 2009, both at the University Jaume I. Since then he has made numerous stays in other universities, with periods from one month to a year and a half. The interest of V. Moliner focuses on the development of QM/MM methods and the study of enzymatic reactions. Among other algorithms, he has worked on the development of QM/MM methods that allow the correction of the quantum region at a high level (JCTC 2005), or the use of global coordinates associated with the environment to describe the specific behavior of the medium (protein or solvent) in chemical reactions (JCTC 2012, Nat. Chem. 2013). The development of such methods opened the possibility to study enzyme catalyzed reactions and applications such as the computational design of biocatalysts or enzymatic inhibitors. In these lines of work he has collaborations with researchers, both theoretical and experimental. In the last 5 years he has participated in 8 national and 3 international projects (PI in 7 of them). V. Moliner has organized four international congresses (Isotopes 2007, Benicàssim; CECAM 2014, Paris; TrEnCa2018 and TrEnCa2019, Benicàssim). He has been invited to give conferences in numerous international congresses (30 in the last 10 years) and national and international research centers (7 in the last 5 year), as well as to participate in panels for the evaluation of doctoral theses in Spain, Europe and United States. He was invited to write an opinion article in the journal Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA ("Eppur si muove" PNAS 2011). He has co-supervised 12 doctoral theses and is co-directing 4. He is member of the editorial board of Arch. Biochem. Biophys. and Int. J. Mol. Sci., guest editor of three issues of different journals (Arch. Biochem. Biophys. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. and Frontiers in Chemistry) and co-editor of a book edited by the British Royal Society of Chemistry ('Simulating Enzyme Reactivity'). He spent 2017 at the University of Bath (United Kingdom) thanks to a prize awarded by the same university (David Parkin Visiting Professor), and a mobility grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Moliner received Excellence in Research Award from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry (RSEQ) in 2019.