Biography

Edward E. Ávila was born in Acarigua, Portuguesa-Venezuela, on September 16, 1979. He did his high school in “José Antonio Páez” School in Acarigua. In 1997, he moved to Mérida City to study Chemistry with help of a Fundayacucho Scholarship at the Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida-Venezuela (1997-2005). In there, he obtained his B.Sc. by the special degree project titled: “El agua y el enlace de Hidrógeno en las estructuras cristalinas de aminoácidos zwitterionicos”, directed by Prof. Dr. Asiloé J. Mora, R., in the Laboratory of Crystallography from Faculty of Sciences. In this work, he studied the effects of water and hydrogen bonds on the stability of the crystalline structure of amino acids, utilizing X-ray diffraction in single-crystal and powder using controlled temperature. Additionally, during these years, he participated in different trading in NMR, IR, UV/Vis, XRD, focused on the research in crystallography, specifically in the use of Direct Space Methods for crystalline structure determination. 

Then, in 2006, he obtained a FONACIT’s Scholarship of the program named “Formación de Talento Humano de Alto Nivel” for studying his Doctorate in Applied Chemistry with a mention in Material Science at the Universidad de Los Andes (2006-2010) under the direction of Professors Dr. Asiloé J. Mora and Ricardo R. Contreras. In his doctoral thesis, titled: “Estructuras Moleculares y Cristalinas de proligandos nitrógeno-sulfurados con aplicaciones en Biomimética Inorgánica”, he studied the crystalline structure of Nitrogen-sulfur pro-ligands with biomimetic applications by computational chemistry tools (DFT and TB-DFT) and XRD techniques. In this work, he found that many crystal structures, with chelating type N2S2 or NS, can adopt different conformations, where the Reciprocal and Direct Space Methods joined with computational chemistry tools can resolve its crystal structures from powder X-ray diffraction. During his doctorate study, he participated in a project for beamtime in the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble-France). In addition, Professor Ávila was enrolled as an Assistant Researcher in various research projects, named: “Exploración de la capacidad quelatante de proligandos nitrogenados, sulfurados frente a níquel (II), rutenio(II) y samario(III)”, directed by the Professor Ricardo Contreras, Organometallic Chemistry Group, Faculty Sciences, ULA-Venezuela.

After finishing his doctorate, in 2011, he started his postdoctorate in Professor Brcieño’s Lab in the Chemistry Center of IVIC, Caracas-Venezuela, where he carried out the project titled: “Diseño, sintesis y caracterización de polímeros de coordinación porosos y su uso como soportes de nanopartículas metálicas” with financing of FONACIT, Caracas-Venezuela, for three years. Afterward, he passed to form part of the staff’s faculty of Chemistry Center-IVIC as Associate Researcher where he continued his research in the coordination chemistry of porous coordination polymers, small-molecules crystallographic, among others. Besides, Professor Ávila integrated the staff of Professors of Postgraduate in the Advanced Studio Center-IVIC (CEA for Spanish). Here, he dictated courses of Crystallography, Single-crystal, and Powder X-ray Diffraction. Additionally, he was the tutor of a dozen of undergraduate and postgraduate students. During the period 2017-2018, he was also a hired professor at the Simon Bolivar University, Caracas-Venezuela, attached to the Department of Chemistry for the dictation of Chemistry I and II, and Inorganic Chemistry courses.

Professor Ávila has participated in 30 national and international congresses. He has presented a total of 20 publications of articles in indexes as such: SCOPUS, SciELO, Science Citation Index, among others. And he has a scientific popularization monograph on the nature of hydrogen bonds and their importance in the stability of supramolecular structures.

Professor Ávila, in all his career, has received various distinctions; for example, the Researcher Promotion Program (PPI)-FONACIT (2011, 2013, 2015), Recognition of academic merit in his studies of Postgraduate in Chemistry-ULA (2009), Research Stimulus Program (PEI) of the University of Los Andes (2005, 2007, 2009), Award for being among the 20 best students of the Department of Chemistry of the ULA (1998, 1999).

Nowadays, Professor Ávila is a teacher and researcher of the School of Science Chemistry & Engineering since 2018. He teaches Crystallography and Solid-State, and he had dictated Chemistry II and Introductory Courses of Chemistry courses. Finally, he is continuing his scientific career in the research group GIAMP directed by Professor Dr. Alfredo Viloria. His researcher line focuses on functional materials, determination and refinement structure crystalline by X-ray diffraction, nanomaterials, porous materials, among others.