Katarzyna Świderek

Katarzyna Świderek obtained her PhD in 2011 at the Lodz University of Technology (Poland). During her PhD, she was funded by an AXIOM - Marie Curie Host Fellowship with a 3-month contract at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig (Germany). After completing her PhD, she undertook a 2-year postdoctoral stay at the University of Valencia. In 2015, she was contracted at Universitat Jaume I (UJI) in a project funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), coordinated by UJI and the University of Iowa, USA. At the same time, she received the Polish grant “Iuventus Plus” dedicated to talented young researchers (under 35). In 2017, she spent 6 months at the University of Bath (UK) as a visiting doctor. She returned to Spain, where she obtained a 2-year Juan de la Cierva-Incorporation contract, a 3-year JIN contract, and in 2022, Ramon y Cajal fellowship. In 2020, she became a leader of the StopProt project that was funded by the GenT-SEJI 2020 program of the Valencian Regional Government. In 2024, she was appointed as an Associate Professor at UJI and is the leader of the DeProtCa project.

Her professional activity is focused on theoretical studies of enzymatic catalysis. In general, three closely connected areas can be distinguished in her recent career path, i.e., the origin of biocatalysis, inhibition and drug design, and the design of biocatalysts. She is a co-author of over 80 research publications. In 2019, she was awarded the GEQC-RSEQ Best Publication Award for her excellent contribution, and in 2021, the Young Investigator Award in Science from UJI. She is co-chairing the series of TrEnCa meetings (“Trends in Enzyme Catalysis” scientific meeting) held in Benicassim, Spain. In August 2021, she co-organized the symposium at the Fall 2021 ACS National Meeting entitled: Computational Chemistry of COVID-19: Lessons Learned and Future Directions, hosted by the American Chemical Society. She is currently co-chairing the upcoming “V Jornadas Españolas de Biocatálisis” conference, scheduled for September 2026.