Scientific board
Our scientific board consists of a team of well renown professors from the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
Prof. Roeland J. M. Nolte
Prof. Nolte studied at the University of Utrecht, where he investigated the metal catalyzed polymerization of isocyanides and discovered the first example of atropisomerism in polymers. He received a Ph.D in Physical Organic Chemistry in 1973. During a post-doctoral stage in the group of Donald J. Cram at the University of California at Los Angeles he was introduced to the fields of Host-Guest Chemistry and Supramolecular Chemistry, which became one of his main research interests when he joined the Science Faculty of the University of Utrecht, first as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor (1979).
In 1987, he moved to the University of Nijmegen as a Full Professor of Organic Chemistry, and since 1994 he has also been an Adjunct-professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In 2002 he became Director of the Institute for Molecules and Materials at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Roeland Nolte is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science and the Royal Belgian Academy of Science. His contributions to science have been recognized with numerous award lectureships and several national and international prices including the Izatt-Christensen Award for Excellence in Macrocyclic Chemistry, the first Royal Netherlands Academy of Science Chair in Chemistry, and a knighthood in 2003. He has served on the editorial boards of many scientific journals, including the journal Science (Washington) and the RSC journal Chemical Communications (as Chairman). His research interests span a broad range of topics at the interfaces of Supramolecular Chemistry, Macromolecular Chemistry, and Biomimetic Chemistry. In his work he focuses on the design of catalysts and (macro) molecular materials. He and his group have published circa 600 scientific papers.
Prof Jan C. M. van Hest
Prof van Hest studied at the Eindhoven University of Technology graduating in 1991, “Cum Laude”
after studying the synthesis and catalytic activity of polystyrene-ionene block copolymer. He then went on to do his PhD at the Eindhoven University of Technology under the Supervison of Prof. dr. E.W. Meijer, Graduating in 1996 with his thesis entitled "New molecular architectures, based on dendrimers". In 1996 he became a Post doctoral scientist at the University of Massachusetts in the laboratories of Prof D.A. Tirrell.
In 1997he joined DSM-Research, working first in the research group New Architectures the becoming the group leader. In December 2000 he moved to the University of Nijmegen Full time professor.
His research finds its inspiration in natural materials and processes. It is his aim to develop smart hybrid materials based on peptides and proteins, using a variety of synthetic techniques, such as protein engineering, peptide synthesis and controlled polymerization methods. We furthermore mimic natural synthetic processes by miniaturisation of reaction environments using microsystem technology (Process on a Chip), and by compartmentalization of biocatalysts in polymeric capsules (polymersomes).
Prof. Alan E. Rowan
Prof Rowan Graduated in Chemistry from the University of Liverpool in 1987. He went in TO receive his PhD form the University of Liverpool under the supervision of Professor R.J. Abraham with his thesis entitled "N.M.R. and Computational Studies as a Probe for Structural Elucidation in Solution". He then went on to the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand where he was a postdoctoral researcher with Dr C.A.Hunter and Prof. D.A.Buckingham. In 1994 he Moved to Nijmegen as a postdoctoral researhc in the group of Prof. Nolte. He went on to be an assistant and associate proffesor in the same group.
In 2005 he became a full professor in Department of Molecular Materials at the University of Nijmegen. His Research is focussed on the construction of a variety of functional systems for application in the fields of catalysis (organic and inorganic), OFETS (organic field effect transistors) and OLEDS (organic LEDS), liquid crystals optoelectronic, conductive and magnetic materials. His aim is the design and synthesis of novel polymers, self-organizing molecules and ordered crystals and the subsequent investigate of their properties. The relationship between the molecular structure and architecture at the nanometer level and the material properties will be studied.
Prof. Jeroen J.L.M. Cornelissen
Prof. Cornelissen is Professor in Biomolecular Nanotechnology at the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. He studied chemistry in The Netherlands with a minor in polymer chemistry carried out at the Eindhoven University of Technology with Prof. E.W. Meijer and a major in Supramolecular Chemistry and Catalysis at the University of Nijmegen with Prof. R.J.M. Nolte. He received his PhD (cum laude) from the latter university in 2001 for research carried out under the supervision of Prof. R.J.M. Nolte. After post-doctoral work at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, U.S.A. he returned to Nijmegen, where he was appointed as an Assistant Professor until 2009. His current research interests are in well-defined polymer architectures, hybrid systems of synthetic macromolecules and biopolymers and the use of viruses as building blocks in functional materials