Daniel Reta is an Ikerbasque Research Associate at The University of the Basque Country and Donostia International Physics Centre. He obtained his PhD from The University of Barcelona in 2016 working with Prof. Francesc Illas and Prof. Iberio Moreira. He then moved to The University of Manchester as a postdoctoral research associate, first with Prof. Nikolas Kaltsoyannis and subsequently with Prof. Nicholas Chilton, where he worked on the description of spin dynamics in single-molecule magnets. His current research focuses on the magnetic and reactivity properties of organic radicals, merging computational and spectroscopic approaches.
In 2023 he obtained an ERC Starting Grant to work on the design of organic molecules as platforms for reversible charge-to-spin conversion with applications in chromophore optimisation and drug discovery, under the project RadicalProtON.
Further info in Google Scholar, Orcid and GitLab profiles.
Dr Shivaprasad A. Balahoju - PostDoc (2023 - current)
Shivaprasad Achary Balahoju completed his Ph.D. from CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad, India (2018) under the supervision of Dr. Lingamallu Giribabu. He then moved to Poland for three years as a PostDoc in the group of Prof. Marcin Stepien at the University of Wroclaw and later took up a Guest researcher position at Dr. L. Giribabu's Lab at CSIR-IICT, India, as well as a guest lecturer as an Organic chemistry teacher at Palamuru University.
His main focus of research is Donor-Acceptor organic molecules for optoelectronic applications, and Pi-extended porphyrin/Corrole macrocycles. Currently, he is working on Donor-Acceptor organic diradical systems funded by the DIPC.
Dr Nicholus Bhattacharjee - PostDoc (2024 - current)
Nicholus earned his Ph.D. from the University of Delhi in 2012, under the guidance of Prof. Parbati Biswas, after which, he became a CNRS postdoctoral fellow at the Institut de Biologie Structurale in Grenoble, working with Dr. Martin J. Field till 2015. He then moved to Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 with Prof. Marrie-Eve L. Perrin and, in 2016, at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, under Dr. Giuseppe Brancato, until 2018. He then served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Science & Technology Meghalaya, where he received a Startup Research Grant from DST, India, to establish his research group. In 2022, he transitioned to an industrial postdoct at Zymvol Biomodeling SL in Barcelona, co-funded by the MSCA.
Nicholus has extensive research expertise in Computational Biophysics/Biochemistry, specialising in MD Simulations, Enhanced Sampling, DFT calculations, and QM/MM. Currently he is working as a postdoctoral fellow as part of the ERC StG RadicalProtON project. Further info Google Scholar, LinkEdin, Orcid.
Dr Roberto Alvarez Boto - PostDoc (2025 - current)
Roberto A. Boto earned his Ph.D from Sorbonne University in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Julia Contreras-García. He then moved to Portugal to carry out a postdoctoral stage at CICECO Aveiro Institute of Material to work with Dr. Manuel Melle-Franco. In 2019, Roberto joined The Theory of NanoPhotonics Group at Material Physics Center in Donostia to work with Prof. Javier Aizpurua and Dr. Rubén Esteban. In 2022, he joined the Molecular Electronic Structure Group led by Dr. David Casanova at the DIPC, Donostia. Roberto has worked intensively in chemical bonding theories, photophysics, light-matter interactions and molecular magnetism. He is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow as part of the ERC StG RadicalProtON project.
Hanae Boulehjour – PhD student (2023 - current)
Hanae Boulehjour is a PhD student at the University of the Basque Country and Donostia International Physics Centre working with Dr. Daniel Reta and Dr. Andoni Zabala-Lekuona. She obtained her Master’s degree at the University of Bordeaux (France). Her current research focuses on dilanthanide systems as potential qubits, involving computational and coordination chemistry methods, funded by the IKUR strategy.
Lisa Ebo – PhD student (2025 - current)
Lisa Ebo received her bachelor's and master's degree in nanoscience at the University of Konstanz (Germany), where she also worked in the research group of Prof. Malte Drescher on the EPR spectroscopic investigation of proteins from 2023-2024. Her master's thesis, supervised by Dr. Alessio Bonucci in the group of Dr. Elisabetta Mileo, was performed at the BIP at the CNRS in Marseille (France) in 2025.
Lisa is currently working on the EPR and optical characterisation of diradical molecules, as part of the ERC- StG RadicalProtON project. She is co-supervised by Dr. Virginia Martinez.
Ibai Zubillaga Nogueira – Master student (2025 - current)
Ibai Zubillaga graduated from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at UPV/EHU. He completed a two-month internship at BiomaGUNE in Maurizio Prato’s group, where he worked on organic synthesis. He was also awarded a Collaboration in University Departments scholarship, conducting research in Nazario Martín’s group on the synthesis of molecular nanographenes combined with DFT calculations.
He joined the group as part of his Master’s project, focusing on the modeling and synthesis of nitro-derivative radicals and molecules for charge-to-spin conversion.
Past Members
Javier Marvizón Valera – DICP Summer Intern (2025)
Javier Borja Marvizón Valera joined the group as a DIPC summer intern. At that time, he was a fourth-year undergraduate student pursuing a double degree in Chemistry and in Materials Engineering at the University of Seville, having completed research internships under the supervision of Prof. Isabel González, Prof. Rocío Moriche, and Prof. Rosario Fernández,. In 2024, he was awarded a CiQUS Summer Fellowship to work under the supervision of Prof. Diego Peña and Prof. Dolores Pérez at CiQUS, Santiago de Compostela.
His work at the group focused on radical formation by direct single electron transfer between nitroaromatics and Lewis bases, and how to use these to unlock valuable chemical transformations.
MSc: Manuel Perez (2022), Mohammad Monir (2024)