Belén Lerma Berlanga (former Funimat member) has been awarded the Francisca Lorente Solaz Prize, granted with 1,000 euros, for young female researchers in Chemistry. The award recognizes the scientific work of young individuals who have earned their bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Universitat de València.
The award ceremony took place on Friday, March 8, coinciding with International Women’s Day. Lerma graduated in Chemistry in 2016 and completed her master’s degree the following year. Her doctoral thesis, completed in 2022, is titled ‘Exploring Chemical Complexity in Group IV Reticular Solids,’ supervised by Carlos Martí Gastaldo and Natalia Muñoz Padial.
In 2022, Lerma was awarded a postdoctoral scholarship, the Margarita Salas Grant, for the Institute of Chemical Technology at UPV-CSIC, and in 2024, she received a Juan de la Cierva Grant at the Institute of Chemical Technology, as reported by the academic institution in a statement.
The prize was presented by the Vice-Rector for Studies, Isabel Vázquez, and the Dean, Adela Mauri. The ceremony took place in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie lecture hall at the Faculty of Chemistry.
Francisca Lorente Solaz (Valencia, 1891-1981) was the first woman to graduate in Sciences, Chemistry Section, from the Universitat de València in 1917. Between 1920 and 1922, she collaborated in the Laboratory of Physical Research, established in Madrid in 1910 by the Board of Advanced Studies. Her research focused on electrochemistry and electroanalysis, under the guidance of Enrique Moles and alongside Carmen Pradel. In 1931, she worked as a professor in the municipal laboratory of Chemical Sciences in Valencia, directed by Vicente Candela Ortells, and from 1932 onwards, she served as a pharmacist on the Avenida del Puerto in this city.