The Universidad Complutense (www.ucm.es) bears this name because it was founded in Alcalá de Henares, known in ancient times as Complutum, by Cardinal Cisneros, by way of a papal bull conceded by Pope Alexander VI in 1499. However, its true origin dates back to the 20th of May, 1293, the date on which King Sancho IV of Castille created, through a Royal Charter, the Estudio de Escuelas Generales de Alcalá, which would lead two centuries later to Cisneros' Universidad Complutense. 

In 1836, during the reign of Isabel II, the University was moved to Madrid, where it took the name of Universidad Central, and was located on San Bernardo street. Later, in 1927, the construction of a university campus in the Moncloa zone was planned, on lands ceded to that end by His Majesty King Alfonso XIII. It was constituted, during this stage, in the nucleus of the so-called Silver Age of the Spanish culture. Teaching in its classrooms were, among others, José Ortega y Gasset, Manuel García Morente, Luis Jiménez de Asúa, Santiago Ramón y Cajal and Blas Cabrera.

In 1970, the Government undertook plans for the reform of Higher Education, and the Universidad Central came to be called the Complutense, recuperating the denomination of its place of origin.

This research project will be carried out in the Department of Organic Chemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry (Avd. Complutense s/n. 28040 Madrid). The analitycal studies by NMR will be carried out in the C. A. I of NMR. This Center is part of the C.A.I.s of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. This facility provides this analytic technique to the research groups in this University and offers its resources to cooperate with other Official Organisms and Private Companies.

( http://www.ucm.es/info/vinvest/sic/cais/rmn/INGLES.htm)

Dr. A. Herrera Fernández studied Chemistry at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) and obtained his Ph.D. in 1978. He continued his scientific education with a Max Planck Fellowship with Prof. Heinz Hoberg from 1979-1981 at Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung. From 1981 to1985 was Labor Manager of BASF in Madrid. He was promoted to Prof. Titular in 1985. His research is focused on the development of synthetic procedures in heterocyclic chemistry and their applications for the design of new discriminating agents by GC and NMR. He is also interested in new NMR analytical methods for determination of minor components of complex foods as, for example, vegetable oils.

Dr. R. Martínez Álvarez is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University Complutense Madrid (UCM) since 1988, and had postdoctoral stay at Tübingen University (Germany). His current research interests are focussed in the synthesis of pyrimidines systems, chiral discrimination and mass spectrometry analyses. The two latter fields are focussed on the identification of volatiles compounds in different edible oils.

Dr. Molero Vilchez studied Chemistry at the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) an achieved her Ph.D. on the synthesis of pyrimidines systems in 1993. She carried out postdoctoral research at the Food Science Department (University of Leeds, UK) on a new approach to study the significance of Amadori compounds in the Maillard reaction. Since 1996 she is appointed as Specialised Technician in NMR at the NMR Center of the UCM