Short biography
Katherine Villa obtained her PhD in Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and pursued postdoctoral research at IREC and IBEC before working as a senior scientist at the Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots in Prague. Since 2020, she has led a multidisciplinary team at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), exploring how light can power motion, assembly, and chemical reactivity at the micro- and nanoscale for environmental and energy applications. In 2025, she became an ICREA Research Professor. Her work has been recognized with distinctions such as the EuChemS Lecture Award, the Young Researcher Award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, election to the Young Academy of Spain, and competitive funding including a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship, an ERC Starting Grant, and an ERC Proof of Concept.
