Pilar Goya Laza received her PhD in Chemistry from the Universidad Complutense Madrid and had a postdoctoral stay with Prof. W. Pfleiderer in Konstanz, Germany, financed by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is research professor of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) and from 2005 to 2011 she was the Director of the Instituto de Química Médica. From 1991 to 1996 she was Head of International Affairs of CSIC. Former representative in HCM and TMR programmes of the EU, she has participated in evaluation panels of the Framework Programmes of the EU, having chaired the Chemistry Committee of the Marie Curie grants. Her research deals with different aspects of medicinal chemistry and drug design, and is currently focused on cannabinoids and PPAR ligands targeting the CNS and obesity. She is author of over 150 scientific publications and holds a dozen international patents in these disciplines. She has directed 10 PhD theses.

She was Vice President of the Royal Society of Chemistry of Spain, RSEQ, and is currently the President of the Spanish Society of Medicinal Chemistry, SEQT. She has recently been elected President of EuCHeMs (European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences).