Postdocs
Tommaso Marchetti was synthesised in Padova in 1996. He obtained his master’s degree in medicinal chemistry in 2020 under the guidance of Prof. Leonard Prins. In the same year, he decided to pursue a PhD in physical organic chemistry at the same lab, where he developed different examples of fuel-driven synthesis of dynamic covalent molecules. He defended his thesis in March 2024 and, in June 2025, he moved to Otto’s group. Here, he is exploring the catalysis mediated by self-replicators using machine learning.
Elie Benchimol was born in Toulouse France in 1997. He studied chemistry at the Université Paris Saclay to get his B.Sc degree and PSL University to get his M.Sc degree. After doing his Master’s thesis in Cambridge with Prof. Jonathan Nitschke working on photoswitchable coordination cages, he moved to Switzerland to work as a Research Assistant at the University of Zurich with Prof. Michel Rickhaus. In April 2021 he took a PhD position in the group of Prof. Guido Clever at the TU Dortmund in Germany. His PhD work has focused on controlling self-sorting in coordination cage systems and creating populations of coexisting assemblies. In January 2025 he joined the Otto group as a Postdoctoral Researcher to work on the development of self-replicator communities and study Darwinian evolution of those systems.
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 did his PhD project on studying the compartmentalization of self-replicating molecules and rejoined the group as a post-doc in april 2025.
PhDs
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. D 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.
Kalliopi Fourli was born in Kavala, Greece, in 2001. She completed her B.Sc. in Chemistry at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2023, where she investigated the electrochemical properties of composites between conducting polymers and valve metals under the supervision of Prof. Dimitra Sazou. During her undergraduate studies, she got introduced to out-of-equilibrium systems, which sparked her interest in Systems Chemistry. This curiosity led her to Strasbourg, France, where she pursued a Master’s in Complex Systems Chemistry. There, she explored a variety of research directions – working with Dr. Guillermo Monreal Santiago on the electrochemical control of coacervate formation and dissociation, with Dr. Giulio Ragazzon on light-induced active transport of amino-based cargoes, and with Prof. Jean-Marie Lehn on Constitutional Dynamic Networks. Today, she continues to pursue her passion for Systems Chemistry as a PhD student in Otto group, where she focuses on the fidelity of self-replicating systems.
k.fourli@rug.nl
Mina Bordbar was born in Iran. Her interest in the fundamental and multidisciplinary science lead her to study Biotechnology in Tehran, where she obtained her bachelor’s and master’s in this this field. During her master’s project, which involved peptide synthesis and the study of peptide hydrogel formation and polydopamine, she found an increasing interest in self-assembly and the underlying chemical reactions of life. In July 2025, she joined the Otto group to follow the thread that connects chemistry to biology. She is working on optimization of catalytic self-replicating systems by utilizing machine learning techniques and Motility.
Sumei Kinzelbach was born in 2003 in Zurich, Switzerland. She obtained her BA and MSci degrees in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specializing in Chemistry. For her Master’s thesis, she worked under the supervision of Prof. Robert Phipps on regioselective C-H oxygenation reactions using manganese catalysis. In September 2025 she joined the Otto group for her PhD, where she is excited to investigate how metabolism can be integrated with compartmentalized self-replicators.
s.l.p.kinzelbach@rug.nl
Nihao! I am Xinyue Zhou, born in Qingdao, a coastal city in eastern China. Over 7 years of exploration in science, I found my research interest in (analytical) chemistry and joined the Otto research group out of passion and vibes for science here. My project mainly focuses on rationalization of Darwinian evolution on communities, including the investigation of how environmental selection pressure affects community dynamics, and unravelling the intrinsic response of those systems behind specific evolutionary behaviors. Interested? Feel free to contact me for collaborations, or an internship :). In my spare time I am also an amateur violinist, seeking ensembles specially with pianists and cellists :).
Cyrene Howland, born in California, holds a bachelor’s in Physics from UC Santa Barbara and a master’s in Complex Adaptive Systems from Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden. Drawn to applying physics and complex systems perspectives to the emergence of biological complexity in living systems, her master’s thesis, supervised by Claus Andersson, used agent-based modeling to simulate the evolution of multicellularity — an evolutionary transition in individuality — inspired by volvocrine algae. In April 2026 she joined the Otto group for her PhD as a modeler, continuing to work on evolutionary transitions in individuality but now in a chemical substrate: applying evolutionary theory to the lab’s self-replicating systems to identify design principles that increase their evolvability toward open-ended Darwinian evolution.
Master Students
- Hermance Pace
- Simone Scardigno
Bachelor students
Alumni
- Kayleigh Van Esterik
- Kirill Mikhailov (postdoc at the University of Groningen)
- Marc Geerts
- Zhenlong Chen (PhD student at South China University of Technology)
- Omer Markovitch (Omer’s homepage) (Academic at the University of Lisbon Portugal)
- Josien Boonman
- Hugo Brummer (PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Yannick Geiger
- Aaltje van der Molen
- Francesco Casnati
- Adi Schoones
- Karlijn Meerman (PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Alex Blockhuis (postdoc at IMDEA, Madrid, Spain)
- Meagan Beatty (postdoc at TBI/INSA, Université de Toulouse, France)
- Kai Liu (PI at Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
- Paul Adamski (postdoc at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany)
- Sofia Iosifidi (Master student at University of Groningen)
- Andreas Hussain (R&D scientist at ICL Specialty Fertilizers)
- Marcel Eleveld (Analytical Chemistry Expert at AkzoNobel, Utrecht, Netherlands)
- Ankush Sood (Scientist at BioNtech, Halle, Germany)
- Jim Ottelé (at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, the Netherlands)
- Ivica Cvrtila (postdoc at the University of Zagreb, Croatia)
- Jan Vučković (PhD student in the UK)
- Joydev Hatai (senior research scientist at Jubilant Biosys Limited, India)
- Yulong Jin (associate professor at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing)
- Emina Ibrahimovic
- Henning Klaasen (scientific coordinator at the University of Munster, Germany)
- Didi Ubels
- Sietse Dijt (PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Julia Kraft
- Owen Terpstra (PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Jasper Bos (PhD student at the University of Leiden)
- Ivana Marić (post-doc in the group of Marco Fraaije, University of Groningen)
- Victor Verduijn (PhD student at the University of Groningen)
- Annemiek Slootbeek (PhD student at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands)
- Peter Kroon (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 (assistant professor at China Three Gorges University, Yichang, China)
- Yigit Altay (Senior Scientist at Mosa Meat B.V.)
- Meniz Tezcan Altay (analytical chemist at EnzyPep B.V. )
- Xiaoming Miao (chemist at WUXI apptec, China)
- Falk Wachowius (senior scientist at Hybridize Therapeutics)
- Pim Frederix (Project Manager at New Energy Coalition, The Netherlands)
- Piotr Nowak
- Shuo Yang (assistant professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
- Dávid Komáromy (postdoc at the University of Edinburgh, UK)
- Gaël Schaeffer (scientific coordinator, Stratingh Institute, University of Groningen)
- Boris Bartolec (team lead scientist at Selvita, Croatia)
- Elio Mattia (business consultant at Ortec Finance, the Netherlands)
- Giulia Leonetti (project manager at the European organization for research and treatment of cancer)
- Jan Sadownik (senior analytical scientist at Symeres)
- Mathieu Colomb-Delsuc (scientist at Vironova AB, Sweden )
- Asish Pal (academic at the Institute of Nanoscience and Technology Mohali, India )
- Andrea Nekane Roig-Alba (working at a consulting company in Spain )
- Hugo Fanlo Virgós (working at EDP renewables in Spain )
- Saleh Hamieh
- Morteza Malakoutikhah (academic at the University of Isfahan, Iran )
- Wietse Smith (working at URENCO, Almelo, The Netherlands )
- Jianwei Li (postdoc in University of Oxford, UK)
- Vittorio Saggiomo (postdoc in Wageningen UR, the Netherlands)
- András Perl (researcher at Hanze Hoogeschool, Groningen, the Netherlands)
- Seyedeh Fatemeh Salehian Amiri
- Yang Han (postdoc in TU Eindhoven, the Netherlands)
- Jérôme Peyralans (senior scientist at UCB Pharma, UK)
- Manuel Pernia Leal (at the Bionand Research Centre in Spain)
- Karine Barral (lecturer at the University of Marseille, France)
- Tomasz Zielinski (postdoc in Edinburgh, UK)
- Guoqiang Feng (lecturer at Huazhong Normal University, China)
- Luis Branco (academic at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal)
- Enda Bergin (editor at Nature Communications)
- Paolo Pengo (academic in Trieste in Italy)
- Jacqui Carnall (at ADAS UK Ltd)
- Frieda Mansfeld (postdoc at the University of Queensland in Australia)
- Zaida Rodriguez-Docampo
- Fred Ludlow (at Astex Therapeutics, UK)
- Kevin West (at BP)