BIO
Dr Cristina Trujillo obtained her PhD in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) in 2008, graduating Cum Laude. Between 2008 and 2016, she held postdoctoral research positions at CSIC (Spain), the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague), and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). She subsequently worked as a Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin before being appointed Assistant Lecturer at TU Dublin in 2018.
In 2019, Cristina was awarded a Science Foundation Ireland Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG), which enabled her to establish her independent research group at Trinity College Dublin. During this period, she received several distinctions, including being Highly Commended in the L’Oréal UNESCO Women in Science UK & Ireland Fellowship.
Since 2022, Cristina has been based at The University of Manchester, where she is currently Senior Lecturer in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. Since 2025, she has served as Deputy Head of the Computational and Theoretical Chemistry Section and has played a leading role in departmental and university discussions on the use of artificial intelligence in research and education. In recognition of her expertise in this area, she was featured in the University of Manchester AI Campaign in 2025.
Cristina’s research focuses on computational organic chemistry, with particular interests in asymmetric catalysis, reaction mechanisms, catalyst design, machine learning for chemical discovery, and the study of non covalent interactions. Her group develops computationally guided approaches to understanding and predicting chemical reactivity and selectivity, with applications ranging from fundamental organic chemistry to challenges relevant to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries.
She has authored more than 100 peer reviewed publications and leads an internationally recognised research programme with collaborators across academia and industry. Cristina serves as Associate Editor of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (RSC), is a member of the ChemPhysChem Advisory Board, and serves on the committee of the RSC Theoretical Chemistry Group.