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
- Marc Geerts
- Zhenlong Chen
- Omer Markovitch (Omer’s homepage)
- 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)