People

Sam was born in 2000 in Groningen. He obtained his BSc degree in chemistry in 2024 at the University of Groningen. He performed his BSc project in Prof. Gerard Roelfes group, working on artificial metalloenzymes (ARMs). Afterwards, Sam started his MSc degree chemistry and joined the Feringa group to perform his MSc thesis. He is currently studying autocatalysis and homochirality under the supervision of Neil Chan and John de Boer.

Jesse was born in Groningen (The Netherlands), and obtained his BSc in Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2024. During the BSc’s degree, he worked in the group of prof. Tibor Kudernac on supramolecular chemistry, where he studied the behavior of supramolecular azobenzene assemblies. After starting the MSc’s degree here in Groningen, he started his MSc thesis in the Feringa lab working on Pd-catalysed cross-coupling reactions, using organolithium reagents.

Carlijn was born in Deventer, the Netherlands in 1997. She studied chemistry at the University of Groningen. During her BSc degree, she performed an extracurricular research internship focused on molecular motors in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa. She obtained her BSc degree in 2018 (summa cum laude), working on surface-immobilised molecular motors. In 2019, Carlijn returned to the Feringa group for her Master research project on combining asymmetric organolithium C-C bond formation and photocyclisation. She then undertook a four-month internship at the University Medical Center Groningen (UCMG). Under the supervision of Prof. Wiktor Szymanski, she worked on the development of new fluorescent tracers and ParaCEST contrast agents. In 2021 she moved to the University of Bristol, UK and joined the Collins group for a research project on autonomous chemically-fuelled linear molecular-level motion. Later that year, she worked on developing new COF linking strategies in the group of Prof. Omar M. Yaghi at UC Berkeley, USA. In 2022, Carlijn rejoined the Feringa group as a PhD student to work on molecular motors and their applications.

Keimpe-Oeds (1995, The Netherlands) obtained his BSc degree in chemistry at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences. He performed his BSc research in the group of Prof. Philip Elsinga and Prof. Ben L. Feringa at UMCG on the synthesis and labelling of a prostate cancer PET-tracer. Subsequently, he did his Pre-master in chemistry at the university of Groningen (2019) after which he stayed and obtained his MSc degree (2021). During his master he performed his research in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa on the synthesis of visible light-responsive azobenzene photoswitches to control biological systems. Then, he decided to work as a research scientist for Symeres (contract research organization, CRO). He did research for the pharmaceutical industry on the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients and side products for registration of pharmaceutical products at the FDA or the EMA. In 2023, he decided on
pursuing a PhD in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa on synthesizing new building blocks for water-borne coating to meet current sustainability demands.

Neil was born and raised in California, USA. He obtained his bachelor’s in chemistry at Pomona College working on palladium and nickel-catalyzed reactions and his master’s in organic chemistry at UCLA working on chemoproteomics. He subsequently spent a few years in the pharmaceutical industry studying small molecule KRAS inhibition and will start his PhD in September 2023 in the Feringa group studying autocatalysis and homochirality. 

Xiaobing was born in Jiangsu Province. He obtained his Bachelor Degree in the field of Materials Science and Engineering. After that, he continued his Master studies at Hangzhou Normal University under the direction of Professor Liwen Xu and Jian Cao in the field of Asymmetric Catalysis. In 2021, he joined Professor Ben L Feringa’s group for a PhD programme working on Catalytic Asymmetric C-H Functionalization.

I was born in 1995 at Périgueux (France). I did my BSc Molecular Chemistry at University of Toulouse (France). After, I did my Master's degree is 3 years in 3 different places. The first year, I did the first year of MSc Chemistry for Health at University of Toulouse. The second year, I did the first year of MSc Molecular and Therapeutic Chemistry at University of Nantes (France). The third year, I came back at University of Toulouse to do the second year of MSc Green Chemistry. I also did three internships : the first one at University of Toulouse whose topic was the synthesis and characterization of hydrosoluble ligands for Cu(II) for therapeutic applications, the second one at University of Nantes whose topic was the synthesis and characterization of bioactive polysaccharride and the third one at University of Groningen in Harutyunyan's team whose topic was synthesis and characterization of novel chiral pincer-ligands for Mn(I) in order to perform enantioselective catalysis. I will do my PhD in Feringa's team. The subject is the synthesis of molecular motors based on artificial muscles. 

Chantal was born and raised in Emmen and studied tourism and hospitality in Zwolle, after which she was employed in hospitality in Florida and Gran Canaria for a few years. In 2007 she settled back in Emmen, working in a few different hotels in the front- and back office. She moved to Groningen in 2022 and in December of that year joined Ben’s team as his management office assistant, taking care of all secretarial duties.

Annemarie obtained her BSc degree in Chemistry at the University of Groningen. She continued with her MSc at the same university, during which she performed her master research project in the Feringa group on metabolic labelling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. For this, she won the Unilever Research Prize 2021. To complete her MSc studies, she performed a research project in the group of Prof. Laura Kiessling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). In June 2022, she returned to Groningen to perform her PhD research on ultrafast photoclick reactions for PET-imaging as a joint project with the department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging at the UMCG.

June was born in Zandvoort, the Netherlands in 2003. She completed her BSc in Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2024, during which she conducted her bachelor research project under the supervision of prof. dr. M.D. Witte, focusing on the derivatization of nitrile sugars. Continuing her studies at the University of Groningen, she is currently pursuing her MSc in Chemistry. For her master thesis, she joined the Feringa group, where she is working under the supervision of David Grantz on azobenzene-functionalized trehalose.

Lukas Eylert was born in 1997 in Rosenheim, Germany. He studied Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), where he completed his BSc degree in 2021. His Bachelor thesis was conducted in Inorganic Chemistry under Prof. Fritz Kühn, focusing on organometallic medicinal chemistry. Lukas continued his studies at TUM, specializing in inorganic and macromolecular chemistry, culminating in a Master's thesis in Prof. Bernhard Rieger’s group under the supervision of Dr. Sergei Vagin. The Master's thesis explored conductive polymers, specifically characterizing and analyzing polymer properties and investigating the reaction mechanism of "ATUMS Green". After earning his MSc in 2022, Lukas began his PhD research, supervised by Prof. Bernhard Rieger and co-supervised by Prof. Job Boekhoven. His doctoral research involves developing an autonomous robot powered by artificial intelligence, capable of precisely dosing air- and oxygen-sensitive chemicals, performing reactions, and analyzing outcomes.

Lisa was born in Cayenne, France. She obtained her MSc in 2024 through a joint program between Chimie ParisTech-PSL and Sorbonne University.
During her Master's studies, she investigated the reduction of esters using a novel photocatalyst at IMS (Okazaki, Japan) in the group of Prof. Uozumi. For her end-of-study project, she joined Novecal, a spin-off from Paris-Saclay University, where she worked on cross-coupling reactions and C–H activation catalyzed by Pd–NHC complexes.
In 2025, she joined the Feringa group as a PhD student to contribute to the AI-driven design of phosphoramidite ligands for asymmetric catalysis in water

(Jacobus van't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences)

Prof. Ben L. Feringa obtained his PhD at the University of Groningen, where he was appointed full professor in 1988, after working as research scientist for Shell. Under his guidance the Feringa group has developed extensive expertise in the fields of organic chemistry, nanotechnology, asymmetric catalysis. His discovery of the molecular motor ranks highly among the many discoveries made over the years. In 2016 Prof. Feringa was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, together with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Sir James Fraser Stoddart.

Thomas was born in Sögel, Germany. From 2011-2014 he worked at the Remmers Group in Löningen, Germany, and became a Chemical Technician, where developed different types of polymers and coatings (water-based, organic-based) and treatments for the restoration and construction of buildings. After that, he studied Chemistry at the Georg-August University in Göttingen. During his BSc degree, he worked in the group of Prof. D. Stalke on the Synthesis of novel N-heterocyclic silylenes for catalytic applications. In 2017 he began his MSc degree at the University of Göttingen and came to the University of Groningen in 2018 to finish his MSc as an exchange student. He focused on a joint research project between the Feringa group and the Barta group developing a molecular motor from lignocellulose. After that he conducted his Master research project in the Feringa group on sustainable polymers and coatings in collaboration with AkzoNobel. Thomas started his PhD in 2020 focusing on sustainable catalysis, energy carriers, and Green Chemistry.

Sina was born in 1990 and raised in Erlangen, Germany, where she also pursued her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Molecular Life Sciences at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). For her master’s thesis, she joined Prof. Svetlana Tsogoeva’s group, focusing on natural product hybrids as potential anticancer agents. Afterwards, she moved to Innsbruck to pursue her doctoral studies on the investigations on gold(I) N-heterocyclic carbene complexes as antitumor agents (2016-2021). In 2021, she moved to Leiden, The Netherlands, to work with Prof. Sylvestre Bonnet on ruthenium-based photoactivated chemotherapy were she worked on the development on various bioassays to test the compounds. In September 2024 she joined the group of Prof. Ben Feringa as a PostDoc in photopharmacology.

Violette was born next to Paris in France. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Chemistry at Angers University. She then joined the LUMOMAT Master’s program to follow a training focused on the study of light-matter interactions for organic electronics and photonics. During the first year of her Master’s degree, she investigated the design of new atropoisomers of dithienylethenes under the supervision of Dr. Arnaud Fihey and Dr. Julien Boixel at the Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes.
In March 2025, she joined the Feringa group to complete her Master’s thesis on the design of helically chiral electromotors under the supervision of Dr. Eric Sidler

David was born in Heidelberg, Germany. He obtained his BSc and MSc degree in chemistry at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. During his master studies, he spent a semester abroad in Italy at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro. For his master thesis, he worked under the supervision of Prof. Rainer Herges on generation of aryne-diazocines for incorporation in photocontrolled molecular pincers. In November 2022, he joined the Feringa group as a PhD student to work on the photocontrol of antibiotics within the bio-optical window.

Ainoa was born in Olot (Catalunya, Spain) in 1996. She completed her BSc in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 2018. As part of her BSc final project she performed a research stay under the supervision of Prof. Romain Quidant (Plasmon nanooptics group) at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO, Spain) working on a Lab-On-a-Chip approach for tumor markers with plasmonic nanoparticles. She also performed an internship with Prof. Brigitte Städler (Cell Mimicry group) at the iNano center (Aarhus, Denmark) working on multilayer polymer vesicles for intracellular drug delivery. To keep forming herself, in 2019, she studied a MRes in Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. She performed a combined nanomedicine project at both Prof. Romain Quidant group at ICFO and Dr. Pilar Rivera (Integrative Biomedical materials and Nanomedicine Lab) at the Biomedical Research Park (Barcelona) to work on Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy in 3D cell cultures. In 2020 she completed a MSc in Genes Drug and Stem Cells at the Imperial College of London. In October 2020 she joined Prof. Feringa group as a PhD student in the field of Amphiphilic Molecular Motors for Cellular Recognition and Uptake.

Anka was born in Wickede (Ruhr), Germany in 2000. She obtained her BSc degree in biochemistry at the Ruhr University in Bochum, working on protein backbone assignments using multidimensional NMR spectroscopy. In 2021, she moved to Groningen to start her MSc Chemistry studies. She conducted  her master thesis project in the Feringa Group working on Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, followed by a second research project  at Gecco Biotech, where she worked on enzymatic hydroxylation reactions. In September 2023, she returned to the Feringa lab to start her PhD on chiral amplification and autocatalysis.

Emil Hodžić was born in 2001 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2022 he obtained his Bachelor’s degree (cum laude) in Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His Bachelor’s thesis was about the synthesis and utilization of a sphere template for the supramolecular binding of dyes and hydrogen evolution catalysts to achieve efficient artificial photosynthesis. 
For his Chemistry Master's degree (cum laude) he did multiple internships at the UvA/VU. He did a short rotation (3 months) at the Noël Research Group working on the Minisci reaction with volatile alkanes in flow. He conducted his Master's thesis at the HomKat group under supervision of prof. Bas de Bruin working on electrochemical intramolecular C–N bond formation from a primary unactivated aliphatic amine.
In 2025, he joined the Feringa Group as a PhD student to work on the robotic exploration of novel catalytic transformations in water using phosphoramidite ligands.

Martijn was born in Delfzijl (The Netherlands), and obtained his BSc (hons) and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Groningen, focussing on organic chemistry, catalysis, and smart materials. During his BSc studies, he conducted research in the Katsonis and Protesescu groups, working on liquid crystal droplet motility and battery materials, respectively. For his MSc thesis, he worked on copper catalyzed photocatalytic N-methylation reactions in the Beil group. To finish his studies, he conducted a research internship at CSIRO Energy in Newcastle, Australia, working on chemical vapour deposition of perovskites for tandem photovoltaics. In 2024, Martijn started his PhD studies in the Feringa group, focussing on electroactive materials for energy storage.

Andries was born in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. He obtained his BSc in chemistry at the University of Groningen. During his bachelor he did research in the group of Prof. Dr. Sijbren Otto, working on foldamers. After completing his bachelor, he started his MSc in chemistry at the same university. During his master he started doing research in the group of Prof. Ben. L. Feringa working on the synthesis of polymer building blocks from biomass. A second research was conducted at Symeres B.V., synthesizing anthraquinone dyes. After completing his master in 2022, he started his PhD focusing on sustainable waterborne coatings.

Givi was born in Batumi, Georgia. He obtained his BSc (summa cum laude) from the San Diego State University satellite program in Tbilisi, Georgia. He then pursued his MSc (cum laude) at KU Leuven in Belgium, where he conducted his Master’s thesis research in the group of Prof. Tatjana Parac-Vogt. His work focused on the synthesis and functionalization of polyoxometalates and macrocycles for the formation of supramolecular systems.
Currently, Givi is a PhD researcher in the group of Prof. Parac-Vogt, where he is developing polyoxometalate for applications across various areas of supramolecular chemistry. In April 2025, he joined the Feringa Group as a visiting PhD student, working on the incorporating polyoxometalates in rotaxane frameworks.

Hellen was born in 2003 in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. She completed her BSc in Chemistry in 2024 at the University of Groningen. During her BSc, she did her thesis under the supervision of prof. dr. M.T.C. Walvoort, where she focused on the synthesis of glucose derivatives with a click handle on the 6-position. She is currently pursuing her MSc in Chemistry at the University of Groningen. She joined the Feringa group for her master thesis, focusing on the synthesis of push-pull motors under the supervision of Ilayda Pedük.

Chris was born in the Netherlands in 2004.
He started the chemistry bachelor program at the University of Groningen in 2021. During his studies, in 2024, he did a project in the Feringa group in the field of asymmetric catalysis. Currently he is conducting research on autocatalysis under the supervision of Neil Chan.

Christophe Lachance-Brais did his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at the University of Montréal in Canada, during which he undertook research internships with Pr. Hanan working on Rhenium complexes and with Pr. Dollé and Pr. Iftimie  on lithium ion batteries. After an exchange at the EPFL, Switzerland, he completed his studies in 2016 with both the Prestige and the Lucien-Piché awards. He then spent a year tutoring mathematics and sciences at a juvenile detention center.  In 2017, he began his Ph.D. at McGill University under the supervision of Pr. Hanadi Sleiman, for which he was awarded the Vanier Graduate Scholarship. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2023 for his thesis on DNA/small-molecule hybrid materials and their applications. He started his postdoctoral research in the Feringa lab in January 2024, funded FRQNT and NSERC scholarships, with the aim of positioning molecular motors with supramolecular tools.

Guiying was born in Hunan Province, China in 1997. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Polymer Materials and Engineering in 2019. After that, she entered South China Normal University for her Master's degree in Physical Chemistry under supervision of Prof. Jiawen Chen, and started her PhD in 2021. Guiying is currently a joint PhD student of South China Normal University and University of Groningen under the supervision of Prof. Jiawen Chen and Prof. Ben L. Feringa. She joined the Feringa group in April 2023 to work on the research of responsive smart materials.

Pradnesh was born in Mumbai, India, in 2002. He earned his BSc in Chemical Engineering (summa cum laude) from the University of Groningen in 2024. During his bachelor's thesis, he worked in the group of Prof. Dr. Ranjita Bose, focusing on UV-cured thiol-ene based adhesives and investigating how surface modifications and crosslinker content influenced adhesive properties.
Continuing at the University of Groningen, he began his MSc in Nanoscience in 2024 and joined the Feringa group for a research project on spiropyran-based polymers with photo-switchable adhesive properties.

Alexandra was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1997. She obtained her BA in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Bryn Mawr College (Pennsylvania, United States) in 2020. For her undergraduate research, Alexandra worked under the supervision of Prof. William P. Malachowski on the efficient generation of potentially therapeutic tricyclic ring systems with quaternary carbon stereocenters via a catalytic enantioselective Birch-Heck pathway. Alexandra started her MSc in Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2020. She conducted her Master thesis project in the Feringa group working on the regioselective preparation of 1,5-enynes from in situ generated propargyllithium species. Then, she conducted a second research project at Symeres B.V. where she worked on the synthesis of unique scaffolds for developing screening libraries. After completing her MSc in 2022, Alexandra returned to the Feringa group to start her PhD focused on the anti-Markovnikov functionalization of olefins.

Karlijn Meerman obtained both her BSc and MSc degree at the University of Groningen where she specialized in organic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and smart materials. During her BSc’s degree, she worked in the group of dr. Johannes Klein where she conducted a computational study on the mechanism of the thermal relaxation of cis-azobenzofurane. For her MSc research, she joined the group of prof. Sijbren Otto where she worked on transferring chiral information between molecular and supramolecular structures. To finalize her studies, she moved to Newcastle (Australia) for an internship at CSIRO, the Australian research organization. Here, she worked on stable transition metal complexes for redox flow batteries. In November ’24, Karlijn started her PhD in the Feringa group working on light-activated drugs for precision therapy.  

Jelmer (1999, the Netherlands) obtained his BSc degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering at the University of Groningen. During his bachelor he conducted his research project under the supervision of Ben Feringa, working on controlled odor and drug release of bio-based polymers. After completing his bachelors he stayed at the same university for his MSc in chemical engineering. During his master another research project was conducted in the group of Ben Feringa, developing a flowsetup for photocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide. A second research project was conducted at Symeres B.V., working on the optimization of [2+2] photocycloadditions in flow. In 2023 he started his PhD focusing on biologically sourced adaptive coatings.

Cristina was born in Romania and she obtained her BSc degree in the Netherlands in 2020, at the University of Maastricht. As an undergraduate, she did an honours research project focused on biobased building blocks for polymers at the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials. For her bachelor thesis internship, she worked on supramolecular metal-organic cages at the University of Cambridge in the group of prof. Jonathan Nitschke. She did her MSc Chemistry studies at the University of Groningen (2020--2022), with a master thesis on the self-assembly and (supra)molecular chirality of disulfides with prof. Ben Feringa. She also did a second master research project on substituent effects on excited state chlorobenzenes (computational study) under the supervision of dr. Stefano Crespi, at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. In November 2022 she returned to the Feringa lab to do a joint PhD in collaboration with the De Feyter group at KU Leuven in Belgium, focusing on the design and synthesis of motors and switches for chiral symmetry breaking on surfaces.

Marco Ovalle was born in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1995. He obtained his BSc. in Nanotechnology Engineering at the Institute of Technology Tijuana. His undergraduate research was focused on natural product synthesis, and got his Master's degree in Chemical Sciences at the same institution working on molecular switches for asymmetric synthesis at the Aguirre-Somanathan group. In 2020 he joined Stoddart's group at Northwestern University as a predoctoral fellow. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Feringa, working on molecular switching-assisted catalysis.

Batuhan was born in Arnhem, The Netherlands in 1999. He obtained his BSc degree in chemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen (2020). He stayed in Nijmegen and specialized in organic chemistry, where he obtained his MSc degree in Molecular Chemistry (2023). He performed his research internship in the Molecular Nanotechnology department of prof. dr. Roeland J. M. Nolte where he synthesized a nonsymmetric Ni(II) salen complex which was cross-coupled to a porphyrin cage compound. The project was part of a research line to develop a processive supramolecular catalyst which can thread and perform enantioselective epoxidation reactions on functionalized polymer strands for binary data storage in the form of chiral epoxides. After briefly working in the group of prof. dr. Roeland J. M. Nolte as a student researcher and elaborating on his research project, he performed an industrial research internship at the coating resins company Allnex in Wageningen. Here he investigated γ-hydroxybutenolide, reported by prof. dr. Ben L. Feringa and co- workers as a potential platform chemical for a novel class of biobased monomers and a green alternative to acrylic acid. During the project he has investigated the scalability of the photo- oxidation of furfural to γ-hydroxybutenolide and its potential applications within the product portfolio of Allnex. After briefly working in the start up company Plantics he decided on pursuing a PhD in the group of prof. dr. Ben L. Feringa to continue researching γ-hydroxybutenolide based coatings and implement smart functionalities to control coating properties.

Ilayda (1996, the Netherlands) obtained two BSc degrees at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences. For her BSc in Chemistry, she performed an internship and thesis project focussing on asymmetric catalysis in the group of Prof. Syuzanna R. Harutyunyan at the University of Groningen (2018). For her BSc in Sensor Technology (Electrical and Electronics Engineering), she went to Seoul (South-Korea) to perform her thesis project focussing on off-axis digital holography in the super-depth imaging group of Prof. Wonshik Choi at the Institute for Basic Science and Korea University (2020). In between, she followed a Pre-Master at the University of Groningen and after graduation she returned for a MSc in Chemistry, for which she did her research project focussing on photocleavable antibiotics in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa (2022). Afterwards, she rejoined the Feringa group for a PhD on photopharmacology and molecular motors.

Alexander Ryabchun obtained his Ph.D. from Moscow State University (Russia) in 2012. Later in 2013, he joined Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research (Germany) Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow. In 2016, he moved to the Netherlands to work with Prof. Nathalie Katsonis (University of Twente, since 2019 University of Groningen). His research is focused on smart adaptive materials powered by artificial molecular machines (molecular motors, switches, mechanically interlocked molecules) and includes broad aspects of polymer materials and liquid crystals. Since March 2022, he joined the group of Prof. Ben Feringa as a research manager.

Eric was born in Wettingen (Switzerland), and obtained his BSc and MSc at the ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Dr. François Diederich working on helicene chromophores. After an internship in the process development unit at Novartis AG in Basel, he moved to the University of Basel to pursue his PhD. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Marcel Mayor he was working on the bottom-up synthesis of carbon nanotubes and chiral carbon-based macrocycles. In March 2023 he joined the group of Prof. Dr. Ben Feringa as SNF Postdoctoral Fellow working on novel molecular motors and switches.

Matvey was born in Moscow, Russia, in 2001. He won the National School Chemistry Olympiad in 2019 and later studied chemistry at Moscow State University. During his studies, he conducted research at the N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry in the Ananikov group, focusing on 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) chemistry.
In 2024, he transferred to the University of Groningen (RUG) as a bachelor's student. He is currently undertaking an extracurricular research internship on photoswitches in the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa, under the supervision of Eric Sidler.

Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Sofia spent her childhood years in Russia followed by teenage years in Limassol, Cyprus. There she graduated from high school and represented Cyprus during the International Chemistry Olympiad in 2022. The same year, she started her Chemistry Bachelor's degree at the University of Groningen, where she did the Sustainable Chemistry and Energy track and the Future Planet Innovation minor, highlighting her passion for sustainability. Continuing on that topic, Sofia joined the group of Prof. Ben L. Feringa to do her Bachelor's research project about green synthesis of biobased coatings from furfural under the supervision of J.T Meijer.

Lotte was born in the Netherlands and obtained her BSc (Hons) degree in chemistry at the University of Groningen. After completing her BSc thesis in the Feringa group, she moved to Switzerland for her master’s programme at ETH Zurich, where she conducted a research project in the group of prof. Chen and completed her MSc thesis under the supervision of prof. Mezzetti, working on Mn(I) catalysts for the asymmetric hydrogenation of ketones. In November 2019, Lotte returned to the Feringa group as a PhD student to work on the development of molecular motors and switches. In March 2024, she started her position as a research manager in the group. 

Lynn was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany. She joined the chemistry bachelor program at the Christian Albrechts University  in Kiel, where she conducted her Bachelor's thesis in Professor R. Herges' group. Her research focused on the synthesis of unsaturated esters for magnetic resonance imaging of parahydrogen-hyperpolarized contrast agents. She remained at the University of Kiel for her Master's degree, during which she undertook a research project in the Feringa Group in 2023. The following year, she joined the Szábó Group at Stockholm University, working on the synthesis and application of chiral organoboronates. In November 2024, she returned to Groningen to begin her Master's thesis on ultrafast photoclick reactions for PET imaging.

Michiel is a synthetic organic chemist, specialised in the synthesis of natural products
and other small molecules. After high school, he started vocational studies in analytical
chemistry, but after that immediately pursued to obtain his BSc in chemistry, with the
focus on organic synthesis, at the HAN University of applied sciences (Hogeschool van
Arnhem en Nijmegen). He then completed his MSc in chemistry, with emphasis on
organic synthesis and catalysis at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije
Universiteit van Amsterdam. Michiel performed research projects in the field of
synthesis and catalysis in the groups of Prof. dr. Christina White (University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign), dr. ing. Tom Wennekes (at Wageningen University and Research),
Prof. dr. Tati Fernández-Ibáñez and Prof. dr. Jan van Maarseveen (UvA). He obtained
his Ph.D in 2023 under the supervision of Prof. dr. Adriaan Minnaard at the University of Groningen, focussing on the total synthesis structurally complex polyketides and
metabolically related compounds from Streptomyces. He is currently a postdoc at the
Feringa group, joint forces with industry, focussing on the development of sustainable
surfactants from renewable building blocks.

Frederik was born in Germany in 2001. He obtained his BSc in Chemistry at Leipzig University with a bachelor thesis on enantioselective cooperative palladium and Brønsted acid catalysis in the group of Christoph Schneider. He remained at Leipzig University for the Master's program, focusing on organic chemistry, but completed a semester abroad at Cardiff University. In March 2025 he joined the Feringa group for an research internship on molecular motors, under the supervision of Jinghao Wang. 

Jinghao was born in Hubei, China in 1997. He obtained his Bachelor and Master’s Degrees under the supervision of Professor Huibin Qiu and Chengshuo Shen at Shanghai JiaoTong University, focusing on the synthesis of helicenes and chiral nanographene chemistry. In 2022, he joined the Feringa group as a PhD student in the field of design, synthesis, assembly and functioning of switches and motors.

Roza was born in Groningen, the Netherlands in 1998. She obtained her BSc degree in Chemistry from the University of Groningen in 2018 after working on the synthesis of organic dyes and the study of their binding to lanthanide nanoparticles for her Bachelor thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Kees Hummelen. In 2018, she moved to Uppsala, Sweden, to begin her MSc studies. She obtained her MSc degree from Uppsala University in Sweden in 2020 after writing her Master thesis on the synthesis and photophysical characterization of luminescent lanthanide complexes under the supervision of Prof. Eszter Borbas. In the fall of 2020, Roza started her PhD in the Feringa group as a part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN ArtMoMa programme, working on the project “Molecular motor-based nanoscale energy storage system”.