Jordi Poater

Jordi Poater

Universitat de Barcelona

Experimental Sciences & Mathematics

Born in 1977. I got my PhD in Chemistry in 2003 at the Universitat de Girona (UdG) with a thesis on the analysis of chemical bonding and aromaticity of organic systems with tools based on the electron-pair density. Next I moved to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA), with a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellowship, where I carried out research on the DNA replication mechanism by means of Kohn-Sham molecular orbital theory complemented with quantitative bond energy decomposition analyses. In 2008 I was awarded with a Ramón y Cajal tenure-track position at the Institute of Computational Chemistry and Catalysis of the UdG. Next I was appointed Senior Associate Researcher at the Department of Theoretical Chemistry and Amsterdam Center for Multiscale Modeling of the VUA. I have published 173 scientific publications, with more than 6.900 citations. My H-Index is 42, I appear as “Scientist” at ESI, and as one of the Best Scientists in Research.

Research interests

My research takes off from two main lines, which are interconnected and reinforce each other. First, the study of aromaticity in organic and metal systems, with tools derived from the electron-pair density, with the purpose of analyzing the electronic structure and molecular bonding in a wide range of molecular systems. The main focus now is the 3D aromaticity of boron clusters. I have also become an expert in the application of Kohn-Sham molecular orbital theory complemented with quantitative bond energy decomposition analyses to the analysis of non-covalent interactions. In particular, the study of DNA related systems has become my main research line. I have got closer to experiment by studying the selectivity in DNA replication mechanism taking into study the steric shape, hydrogen bonds, pi-stacking and solvent effects in natural and artificial DNA bases.

Selected publications

- Poater J, Viñas C, Solà M & Teixidor F 2022, '3D and 2D aromatic units behave like oil and water in the case of benzocarborane derivatives', Nature Communications, 13, 1, 3844.

- Poater J, Viñas C, Olid D, Solà M & Teixidor F 2022, 'Aromaticity and Extrusion of Benzenoids Linked to [o-COSAN](-): Clar Has the Answer', Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 61, e202200672.

- Jian J, Hammink R, Tinnemans P, et al. 2022, 'Probing Noncovalent Interactions in [3,3]Metaparacyclophanes', Journal Of Organic Chemistry, 87(9), 6087-6096.

- Jian J, Barkhatova D, Hammink R, et al. 2022, 'Through-Space Stabilization of an Imidazolium Cation by Aromatic Rings', Journal Of Organic Chemistry, 87, 7875-7883.

- Jian J, Hammink R, McKenzie CJ, Bickelhaupt FM, Poater J & Mecinović J 2022, 'Probing the Lewis Acidity of Boronic Acids through Interactions with Arene Substituents', Chemistry A European Journal, 28, e202104044.

- Poater J, Andrada DM, Solà M & Foroutan-Nejad C 2022, 'Path-dependency of energy decomposition analysis & the elusive nature of bonding', Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 24, 2344-2348.

Selected research activities

- PI of MINECO research grant (2020-2023).

- Co-PI (garante) of María de Maeztu Grant to IQTCUB (2M€, 2018-2022).

Scientific Organizing Committee of the 9th European Conference on Boron Chemistry, Barcelona.

- Delivered 3 invited lectures in Singapore, Cambridge and Barcelona, plus 4 contributed.

- Member of 3 PhD commitees.

- Evaluation panel of the Galician Research Centers.