Comenius University Bratislava is the first university in Slovakia to receive a grant from the European Research Council (ERC). The grant, worth 1.55 million euros, was awarded to young researcher Michal Májek from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University. In the past, only one male and one female researcher from the Slovak Academy of Sciences received a similar grant. The recent successes of Slovak scientific personalities in the ERC open a new chapter for Slovak science.

His project CAPELE focuses on using mechanical energy to activate organic molecules. The goal is to use a new method of activating molecules using piezoelectric catalysts in the search for new reactions. The project is part of basic research but it might have potential practical applications in the synthesis of medicinal substances or in materials science.

Michal Májek is a chemist. He works at the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Science in Bratislava. He graduated from the University of Chemical Technology in Prague. He has worked at several institutions abroad, including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Rostock. He has been working at the University of Bratislava since 2020. He heads the Laboratory of Methodology of Organic Synthesis. He is mainly involved in organic photochemistry, organic electrochemistry, computational chemistry or mechanochemistry. He is the recipient of several fellowships and grants, including a Marie Curie-Sklodowska Fellowship (2020) and an ERC grant (2023).

Published 2.3.2023, slord