The Medalla Rafael Usón Award is the highest distinction of the GEQO and is granted annually to distinguish excellence in a scientific trajectory. Porf. Miquel Costas received this award for his outstanding scientific trajectory and contributions to the field of organometallic chemistry, in particular in the study of oxygenase models, the development of selective methods for the activation of carbon-hydrogen bonds, the oxidation of water and the design of metallic supramolecular systems.

Trajectory: Miquel Costas pursued PhD studies in the group of Prof. A Llobet in the University of Girona (UdG). Research work during the PhD involved scientific stays at Texas A&M (Prof D. H. R. Barton,1996), and in Basel (Prof. A. Zuberbüehler, 1998). After defending his PhD, he moved to the group of Prof. L. Que, Jr, at the University of Minnesota with a Fellowship of Fundació La Caixa. He returned to UdG in 2002 with a contract from the Ramón y Cajal program and he was appointed Professor Titular in 2003, and full Professor in 2022. In 2006 he initiated his independent career as a group leader in QBIS-CAT. His research interests involve biologically inspired design of inorganic reactivity and catalysis and supramolecular chemistry. Costas has more than two hundred scientific publications, collecting over 12000 citations, and has directed over twenty PhD thesis. He has been awarded three times the ICREA Academia Award (2018, 2013 and 2008), elected as new Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2020), received the award of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry to excellence in research (2014). His research activity has been continuously funded by the ERC (Starting Grant 2009, PoC in 2011 and 2012, and ERC Advanced Grant in 2019) and the Spanish Ministery of Science.

Congratulations Miquel!