Cláudio M. Nunes graduated in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra in 2004 (best student), obtained his MSc degree in Organic Chemistry in 2007 and his PhD degree in Molecular Spectroscopy in 2012. Worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory for Molecular Cryospectroscopy and Biospectroscopy from 2013 to 2018. Besides a short postdoctoral position at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), he also spent several months working as a visiting researcher at the Organometallic Chemistry Institute of the University of Oviedo (Spain), the Department of Chemistry of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), and the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany). Started his independent research career in 2019 at the Coimbra Chemistry Centre as an Auxiliary Researcher funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. In late 2023, was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Coimbra. He is also currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier) and coordinates the Laboratory for Molecular Cryospectroscopy group (since 2024). His researcher program is focused on quantum tunneling chemistry, vibrational excitation chemistry, computational chemistry, organic mechanisms and reactive intermediates, and the development of new organic reactions and organocatalysts.

Rui Fausto is a Professor of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Coimbra, and a Visiting Researcher of the Istanbul Kultur University (Turkey). He was born in Coimbra, and graduated in Chemistry (1984) at the University of Coimbra. He obtained the Ph.D. in Sciences (Chemistry – Molecular Spectroscopy) in 1988, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the NRC Canada, where he works in infrared, Raman and resonance Raman spectroscopies of proteins. After his return to Coimbra, he started the installation of the first (and unique until now) Portuguese cryospectroscopy laboratory, the LMC. Rui Fausto is a member of the European Academy of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (Paris), integrates the Editorial Boards of several international scientific journals (he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Molecular Structure, Elsevier, Amsterdam, until December 2023), and is the President of the European Congress on Molecular Spectroscopy (EUCMOS) Steering Committee. Along his career he has occupied many different positions in the administration and scientific management in the University of Coimbra, including the presidency of the Academic Council and the vice-presidency of the Scientific and Directive boards of the Science and Technology Faculty and the presidency of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research of the University of Coimbra. In 2004 and 2005, he was one of 12 Portuguese chemists awarded with the Excellence Prize of the Portuguese Science Foundation / Portuguese Ministry of Science. He is author or editor of >40 scientific books and author of more than 500 scientific papers and book chapters (h-index: 57). He has supervised a large number of students and was involved in over 50 competitive research projects, which correspond to a total funding of several millions of euros. His scientific interests are broad, including theoretical and computational chemistry, chemometrics, molecular spectroscopy and photochemistry.

António Jorge was born in Coimbra in 1972. He graduated in Industrial Chemistry in 1996 at the University of Coimbra. After graduation, he started his research activity in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Coimbra, having completed a master's degree in 2001 and a PhD in 2006, in the specialty area of Physical Chemistry. During this period, he was awarded research, MSc and PhD grants, by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology. Since 2006, he is an assistant Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Coimbra. His main research activities have been focused on the study of photoinduced transformations, and in particular IR-induced conformational changes, of relevant biological molecules, combining matrix isolation FTIR spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. He has also been dedicated to the study of intra and intermolecular hydrogen bonding in systems of pharmaceutical interest.

Susy Lopes obtained her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Coimbra. She was a PhD researcher at the University of Helsinki (Finland) and later continued her work at the LMCB at the CQC. Her main research experience areas include low temperature matrix isolation, infrared spectroscopy, vibrational selective excitation, characterization of high-energy forms, photochemistry, molecular structure, conformational analysis, and high-level quantum chemistry calculations. She is currently a Researcher at the CQC, where her work focuses on producing and characterizing new chemical species (from molecules possessing different conformational structures) and the study of their selective chemistry and interaction with other molecules and solid matrix. She has also been a team member in many scientific projects.

Epole Ntungwe has a master’s degree in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Buea, Cameroon. She later began her PhD studies in the Health Sciences at the Research Center for Biosciences and Health Technologies (CBIOS), Escola de Ciências e Tecnologias da Saúde - Universidade Lusófona in partnership with the University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain. She joined CBIOS in 2016 as a research fellow where after six months she wrote and published a research article on the biological activity study of natural products. Due to her interest in medicinal chemistry, she began her doctoral studies in 2018 in the project titled “Isolation and design of diterpenoids from Plectranthus species”. Epole joined LMCB in 2023 as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Coimbra where she works on the synthesis and reactivity of triazolium molecules, coupled with matrix isolation, FTIR spectroscopy, and computational calculation.

José Roque graduated in Chemistry in 2017 and obtained his MSc degree in Chemistry in 2019 at the University of Coimbra. During his studies, he received advanced training at Pau University (France, 2018) and Giessen University (Germany, 2019). He is currently conducting his PhD studies in Chemistry at the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with the Justus-Liebig University Giessen, on the topic of quantum mechanical tunneling reactivity. His researcher interests extend to the topics of vibrationally-induced and photo-induced reactivity of small organic compounds. Throughout the years, he has been distinguished with awards on several occasions, both during his BSc and MSc studies, and through the dissemination of science (oral and poster communications).

Sofia Braz was born in the year 2000 in Coimbra. She graduated in Chemistry in 2021 and obtained an MSc degree in Advanced and Industrial Chemistry in 2023. She is working on an internship, under the orientation of Professor Rui Fausto, Dra. Licínia Justino and Dr. João Pina, on the investigation of metal complexes using infrared and UV-Vis spectroscopies and computational calculations.

Gregory Iordache Ferreira was born in Geneva, Switzerland in 2001, lived there for 5 years. Then he moved to Tomar, Portugal, where he finished schooling. From 2019 he started doing a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at the University of Coimbra. Now he is working on the bachelor internship focused on the investigation of conformational space of the molecules and their photo-induced processes using matrix isolation infrared spectroscopy and quantum chemical electronic structure calculations.

Tatiana Caneca was born in Barreiro, Setúbal, Portugal, in 2002, where she completed her secondary education. She graduated in Chemistry from the University of Coimbra in July 2023. She is now doing her Master's in Advanced and Industrial Chemistry, where she is focusing on investigating the reactivity of 1,2,4-trizole compounds for the use of their carbene species as organocatalysts through infrared spectroscopy with cryogenic matrix isolation and quantum chemical electronic structure calculations.

Collaborators and Visiting Researchers

Leonardo Duarte graduated in Chemistry in 2017 and received his Ph.D. degree in 2023 at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) with the thesis entitled "Chemistry of molecular vibrations", supervised by Emeritus Prof. Dr. Roy E. Bruns. In 2019, he worked at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (University of Manchester) as Academic Visitor under Prof. Paul Popelier. Currently, he holds a post-doctoral fellowship working at the Applied Computational Chemistry Group under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ataualpa Braga at the São Paulo University (USP).  His research focuses on studying chemical reactions induced by infrared radiation, developing models that describe the phenomenon of intramolecular redistribution of vibrational energy in close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Rui Fausto and Prof. Dr. Claudio Nunes at the University of Coimbra.

Kseniya Gorbatenko was born in Samara, Russia. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 2018 and her Master of Science degree in Chemistry in 2020 at Ruhr University Bochum. Currently, she is in her third year of a PhD program under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Sander at RUB, focusing on the topic "Matrix isolations as a confinement for reactive species." Her research involves preliminary energy calculations of compounds, their synthesis, and subsequent investigation under matrix isolated conditions. From April to July 2024, she is undertaking a 3-month internship at the University of Coimbra under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nunes, where she plans to study the Quantum Mechanical Tunneling of Nitrenes.
 

Elisa M. Brás graduated in Chemistry in 2014, obtained her MSc degree in Chemistry in 2017 at the University of Coimbra. She finished her PhD in 2024 at the same Institution under the supervision of Professor Rui Fausto. During her PhD studies, she has spent a year and 6 months working as a guest researcher at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the University of Göttingen (Germany). She has also participated in a bilateral project and carried out investigations at Justus-Liebig University Giessen (Germany) during a short-term stay. Her research interests focus on the generation and vibrational characterization of reactive species, in particular transient and persistent radicals, and small radical complexes, in both cryogenic matrices and pulsed supersonic slit-jet expansions. Throughout her studies, she was awarded with Caixa Geral de Depósitos Merit-based scholarships, a research grant from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (University of Algarve), and the Merit award for top 3 percent students (University of Coimbra).