Ala grew up in Tirgul Vertiujeni, a small village in the north part of Moldova. In 2000, she moved to Iasi, Romania for her high school studies. Afterwards, she went to France where she received in 2010 a MSc degree in Chemistry at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées of Rouen. She continued her doctoral studies with Professor Jieping Zhu at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland investigating novel copper catalyzed difunctionalization of doubles bonds. In 2015 she joined the Hartwig group at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher founded by SNSF. Her research focused on developing several strategies for C-H functionalization of polyethylenes, amines, and alcohols. In 2018 she moved to University of Cambridge and joined the Gaunt group as Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow, where she worked on photocatalytic transformations. Ala started her independent career at University of Bonn in 2021 working on transition metal catalysis. In her spare time, Ala loves spending time with her family, practicing yoga, playing badminton, cooking, and travelling.
Education
2018 - 2020
Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Cambridge, UK
2015 - 2018
SNSF Postdoctoral Fellow
University of California Berkeley, USA
2010 - 2014
Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
2004 - 2010
MSc degree in Organic Chemistry
Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Rouen, France
Awards
2022-2027 ERC Starting Grant 2021 Awardee
2022 Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, Thieme Chemistry, Germany
2018 – 2020 Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellowship
2017 – 2018 Advanced Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship SNSF
2015 – 2016 Early Postdoc.Mobility Fellowship, SNSF
2010 Interreg IV Research Fellowship, European Regional Development Fund
2010 Novartis Award for Master’s Degree Internships, Federation Gay-Lussac, France
2008 Award for Research Internship, Région Haute-Normandie, France