David Cantillo Nieves, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences since 2023, is a prominent researcher in synthetic organic electrochemistry. He completed his Licentiate in Chemistry and PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2011 at the University of Extremadura, Spain, supervised by Prof. Jose Luis Jimenez, with a thesis on the experimental and theoretical study of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions of mesoionic compounds. His postdoctoral work from 2011 to 2015 at the University of Graz under Prof. C. Oliver Kappe introduced him to flow chemistry. Subsequently, he served as Senior Scientist (2015-2018) and Scientific Area Head (2018) at the Research Center Pharmaceutical Engineering GmbH, while commencing his independent academic career as Assistant Professor at the University of Graz in 2018.

Cantillo Nieves' research group at UQ focuses on synthetic organic electrochemistry, developing novel methods for anodic and cathodic reactions to generate high-energy intermediates like radicals and carbocations under mild conditions. His work emphasizes sustainable electrochemical synthesis of pharmaceuticals, replacing chemical reagents with electrical current to minimize waste, and scaling up via flow electrolysis. He has authored over 104 journal articles, accumulating more than 5,000 citations with an h-index of 35. Key publications include "Continuous‐flow technology—a tool for the safe manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients" (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 1,621 citations), "Immobilized transition metals as catalysts for cross‐couplings in continuous flow—a critical assessment of the reaction mechanism and metal leaching" (ChemCatChem 2014, 241 citations), and recent papers such as "An automated electrochemical flow platform to accelerate library synthesis and reaction optimization" (Angew. Chem. 2024) and "Synthetic organic electrochemistry – an industrial perspective" (Chimica Oggi 2025). He holds five patents, including electrochemical reactor processes (WO2023180283A2, 2023). His accolades include the Thieme Chemistry Journals Award (2020), ACS Organic Process Research & Development Award (2024), University of Graz Inventor Awards (2017 and 2023), and UNEX Extraordinary PhD Award (Sciences). He serves on the scientific advisory boards of Axplora and Chimica Oggi and teaches courses in organic chemistry, electro-organic synthesis, and sustainable chemistry.

Professional Email: d.cantillo@uq.edu.au