POST-DOCS
Ph.D. STUDENTS
Armin Kiani was born in Iran, where he obtained his graduate degree in analytical chemistry. In 2016, he moved to Stockholm, Sweden and joined the research group of Prof. Minna Hakkarainen at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) as a researcher. He joined to Topmaster program in nanoscience at the University of Groningen in 2017 and started his research project in Sijbren Otto’s research group in the field of Systems Chemistry. He is now working on his PhD project on studying the compartmentalization of self-replicating molecules.
Juntian Wu was born in China in 1994, he studied chemistry in the University of Lanzhou to get his B.Sc. degree. His graduation thesis majors in the fabrication of multicomponent metal/metal-free catalysis with high performance on OER and ORR aimed at releasing the pressure of energy crisis. He obtained his M.Sc. degree from South China University of Technology, Guangdong Province, China under the supervision of Prof. Wenli Deng. During his Master, his research major focus on the STM study of 2D self-assembly behaviors of small organic molecules on HOPG surface both experimentally and theoretically to reveal the binding mechanisms of weak interactions like hydrogen bond and halogen bond which would provide evidences on fabricating organic photoelectric devices. In the meantime, he also worked on the aggregation-induced-emission pheromone of organic molecules containing halogens and exploit the structure-function relationship. He moved to the University of Groningen and joined the Otto group in October 2019 to peruse his PhD in self-replicating molecules under out-of-equilibrium regime.
Marc Geerts was born in Doetinchem, The Netherlands in 1996. He studied Chemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen, where he worked in the group of Prof. Roeland Nolte and dr. Hans Elemans studying host-guest interactions in chiral supramolecular complexes. He then joined the group of Sijbren Otto in June 2019 as a research intern studying self-replicating molecules in a continuous replication-destruction regime. In March 2020, he joined the group as a PhD student studying nucleobase-driven synthetic self-replication.
Kirill Mikhailov was born in 1994 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2017 he graduated from St. Petersburg State University. His thesis project in organic Chemistry related to the chemistry of strained nitrogen- and oxygen-containing cycles (azirines, isoxazoles) was carried out under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Alexander Khlebnikov. Having acquired the Master’s degree, Kirill spent several years working in the industry of household water treatment, membrane processes, analytical and physical chemistry. In October 2020 he joined the Otto group to pursue his PhD in the area of self-synthesizing materials for tissue culture applications.
Lukas Herold was born in 1999 in Wurzen, Germany. In 2020 he finished his B.Sc. degree in chemistry at the University of Heidelberg, where he worked on gold catalyzed photoreactions for 3D printing under the guidance of Prof. S. K. Hashmi. During his master studies he joined the Dietzel group at the University of Bergen for a five-month internship, where he examined the gas absorption properties of interpenetrated pillar‑layered metal organic frameworks. He also conducted research internships at the University of Heidelberg in physical and organic chemistry at the Zaumseil group and the Blasco group, respectively. For his master thesis he joined the Bunz group in Heidelberg and worked on the characterization and psychoactive activity of novel synthetic cathinones. In December 2023 he joined the Otto group as PhD student studying Darwinian evolution of compartmentalized self-replicators.
Levy Charleston was born in Tilburg, The Netherlands in 1997. In 2020 he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Molecular Life Sciences from Radboud University, Nijmegen. During his master’s, he performed a six-month internship at the coacervates and soft interfaces group of Dr. Evan Spruijt. Where he worked on light-directed coacervation. He then joined the Systems Chemistry group of Prof. Daniela Wilson, where he focused on the synthesis and self-assembly of biodegradable block- copolymers. In April 2024, he joined the Otto group as a PhD student to study Darwinian evolution and chirality in self-replicating systems.
Shana Hamed was born in the Netherlands, in the serene coast of Delfzijl in 1999. She moved to the UK where she finished high school, and returned back to her place of origin to continue with undergraduate and postgraduate studies. She started her journey in academia with photochemistry, and wishes to continue it in photochemistry with specializations from the fields of stimuli-responsive spiropyrans to photocleaveable caged compounds. She already joined the Otto group for her bachelor’s thesis, and returned back for her PhD to shed some light into the world of systems chemistry. Utilizing spiropyrans, she hopes to design photoresponsive compartments as well as exploiting light to manipulate replication of compounds.
Master Students
Bachelor students
ALUMNI
- Zhenlong Chen
- Omer Markovitch
- Josien Boonman
- Hugo Brummer
- Yannick Geiger
- Aaltje van der Molen
- Francesco Casnati
- Adi Schoones
- Karlijn Meerman
- Alex Blockhuis (now postdoc at IMDEA, Madrid, Spain)
- Meagan Beatty (now postdoc at TBI/INSA, Université de Toulouse, France)
- Kai Liu (now PI at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
- Paul Adamski (now postdoc at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany)
- Sofia Iosifidi (now Master student at University of Groningen)
- Andreas Hussain (now R&D scientist at ICL Specialty Fertilizers)
- Marcel Eleveld (now Analytical Chemistry Expert at AkzoNobel, Utrecht, Netherlands)
- Ankush Sood (now Scientist at BioNtech, Halle, Germany)
- Jim Ottelé (now at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, the Netherlands)
- Ivica Cvrtila (now postdoc at the University of Zagreb, Croatia)
- Jan Vučković (now PhD student in the UK)
- Joydev Hatai (now senior research scientist at Jubilant Biosys Limited, India)
- Yulong Jin (now associate professor at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing)
- Emina Ibrahimovic
- Henning Klaasen (now scientific coordinator at the University of Munster, Germany)
- Didi Ubels
- Sietse Dijt (now PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Julia Kraft
- Shana Hamed
- Owen Terpstra (now PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Jasper Bos (now PhD student at the University of Leiden)
- Ivana Marić (now post-doc in the group of Marco Fraaije, University of Groningen)
- Victor Verduijn (now PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Annemiek Slootbeek (now PhD student at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands)
- Peter Kroon (now teacher at the HanzeHogeschool Groningen)
- Charalampos (Babis) Pappas (now group leader at Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies, Germany)
- Guillermo Monreal Santiago (now academic at the University of Strasbourg, France)
- Bin Liu (now assistant professor at China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China)
- Yigit Altay (now Senior Scientist at Mosa Meat B.V.)
- Meniz Tezcan Altay (now analytical chemist at EnzyPep B.V. )
- Xiaoming Miao (now chemist at WUXI apptec, China)
- Falk Wachowius (now senior scientist at Hybridize Therapeutics)
- Pim Frederix (now Project Manager at New Energy Coalition, The Netherlands)
- Piotr Nowak
- Shuo Yang (now assistant professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
- Dávid Komáromy (now postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, UK)
- Gaël Schaeffer (now scientific coordinator, Stratingh Institute, University of Groningen)
- Boris Bartolec (now team lead scientist at Selvita, Croatia)
- Elio Mattia (now business consultant at Ortec Finance, the Netherlands)
- Giulia Leonetti (now project manager at the European organization for research and treatment of cancer)
- Jan Sadownik (now senior analytical scientist at Symeres)
- Mathieu Colomb-Delsuc (now scientist at Vironova AB, Sweden )
- Asish Pal (now academic at the Institute of Nanoscience and Technology Mohali, India )
- Andrea Nekane Roig-Alba (now working at a consulting company in Spain )
- Hugo Fanlo Virgós (now working at EDP renewables in Spain )
- Saleh Hamieh
- Morteza Malakoutikhah (now academic at the University of Isfahan, Iran )
- Wietse Smith (now working at URENCO, Almelo, The Netherlands )
- Jianwei Li (now postdoc in University of Oxford, UK)
- Vittorio Saggiomo (now postdoc in Wageningen UR, the Netherlands)
- András Perl (now researcher at Hanze Hoogeschool, Groningen, the Netherlands)
- Seyedeh Fatemeh Salehian Amiri
- Yang Han (now postdoc in TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
- Jérôme Peyralans (now senior scientist at UCB Pharma, UK)
- Manuel Pernia Leal (now at the Bionand Research Centre in Spain)
- Karine Barral (now lecturer at the University of Marseille, France)
- Tomasz Zielinski (afterwards postdoc in Edinburgh, UK)
- Guoqiang Feng (now lecturer at Huazhong Normal University, China)
- Luis Branco (now an academic at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal)
- Enda Bergin (now editor at Nature Communications)
- Paolo Pengo (now academic in Trieste in Italy)
- Jacqui Carnall (now at ADAS UK Ltd)
- Frieda Mansfeld (postdoc at the University of Queensland in Australia)
- Zaida Rodriguez-Docampo
- Fred Ludlow (now at Astex Therapeutics, UK)
- Kevin West (now at BP)