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Kasper Moth-Poulsen
Head
KMP studied organic chemistry at the University of Copenhagen where he obtained the Cand. Scient. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) degrees under supervision of prof. Thomas Bjørnholm. After the Ph.D. degree, he worked as a post doc. in the Bjørnholm lab. In 2009, he continued his career abroad as a post doctoral associate at the College of Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley, where he worked with professors Rachel Segalman and Peter Vollhardt. In 2011 KMP was recruited to Chalmers University of Technology, as an assistant professor. In 2014 he was promoted to associate professor and in 2017 to professor (bitr. prof.)
Helen Hölzel
Researcher (Postdoctoral), UPC
Helen studied Molecular Science at the FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg in Germany. She received her doctoral degree with honors in natural sciences (chemistry) from the FAU, working on carbon-rich π-system porphyrin hybrids. During her doctoral studies, she also joined the group of Prof. Eiichi Nakamura at the University of Tokyo, Japan, as visiting researcher where she investigated the behavior of molecular systems under TEM (transmission electron microscopy) conditions. She is very experienced in synthetic organic chemistry. Present, she works on flow synthesis and is involved in several projects concerned with the development, optimization, and investigation of the NBD/QC isomerization pair as an efficient MOST system.
Nicolò Baggi
Researcher (Postdoctoral), ICMAB
Nicolò Baggi was born in Milan, Italy. He received his Bachelor’s Degree (2016) and Master’s Degree (2018) in Industrial Chemistry from Università degli Studi di Milano (UniMi, Italy). He then moved to France to work on terarylene-based molecular switches under the supervision of Dr. Pei Yu at Université Paris-Saclay, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2022. He is currently working on the synthesis and the characterization of molecular photoswitches for energy conversion as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB, Spain).
Pankaj Bharmoria
Researcher (Postdoctoral), ICMAB
Pankaj Bharmoria is an experimental photophysical chemist. He has joined Kasper Moth-Poulsen lab as an Incoming Junior leader-post doctoral with a la-Caixa grant at ICMAB-CSIC Spain. His research interests are focused on development of new bio-sustainable photon conversion materials for solar energy harvesting. Prior to this, he worked with Kasper at Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) Sweden, as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Post-doc where he developed recyclable bioplastics for red to blue photon upconversion and molecular photoswitching in the solid-state in air. He is an experienced researcher worked across India (Ph.D., CSIR-CSMCRI), Japan (JSPS-Postdoc, Kyushu University), Portugal (Postdoc, CICECO Aveiro University), and Sweden (Researcher, CUT & Gothenburg University).
Pedro Ferreira
Researcher (Postdoctoral), ICMAB
Pedro Ferreira was born in Portalegre, Portugal. He received his BSc in Applied chemistry (2015) and MSc in Bioorganic chemistry (2017) from NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT-UNL, Portugal). During his master’s thesis, he was awarded an intership at ISOF-CNR (Italy) under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Barbieri and Dr. Barbara Ventura. Pedro received his PhD in chemical science and technology (2022) from URV (Spain) under the supervision of Prof. Pablo Ballester at ICIQ (Spain). During this time, he was awarded an academic secondment at ISOF-CNR (Italy) under the supervision of Dr. Barbara Ventura in the field of photophysics and an industrial secondment at COVESTRO (Germany) under the supervision of Dr. Stefanie Eiden and Dr. Frank Richter. In 2022 he joined the group of Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen at ICMAB (Spain) as a postdoctoral researcher to work on the synthesis and characterization of molecular switches.
Kevin Moreno
Researcher (Postdoctoral), UPC
Kevin Moreno studied organic chemistry at the University of Bordeaux where he obtained his doctoral degree in 2022 under the supervison of the Dr. Celine Olivier. His Ph.D. work was focused on the synthesis and optical characterization of chiral foldamers for circularly polarized luminescence and nonlinear optics. Currently, he joined the group of Pr. Kasper Moth-Poulsen in Barcelona as a postdoctoral researcher to work on scalable synthesis of molecular photoswitches for energy conversion.
Rebecca Salthouse
Researcher (Postdoctoral), UPC
Rebecca completed her MChem at Durham University (UK) in 2018 where she then went on to study for a PhD in the group of Prof. J. A. Gareth Williams working on the design, synthesis and photophysical studies of deep-red/NIR-emitting mono- and dinuclear platinum(II) for OLED applications. Whilst finishing her PhD thesis during 2022, she was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Martin Bryce (Durham University) focusing on the synthesis of cross-conjugated molecules and air-stable radicals for single-molecule conductance measurements. In 2023 she joined Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at UPC (Barcelona) to work on the scalable synthesis of molecular photoswitches and their application in MOST devices.
Liang Fei
Researcher (Postdoctoral)
Liang Fei obtained his PhD degree in Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University under the supervision of Prof. Chaoxia Wang, working on the photoswitch design for photothermal conversion. During his doctoral studies, he also joined the group of Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen at the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, as visiting researcher where he investigated norbornadiene synthesis for molecular solar thermal (MOST) storage. Present, he joined the group of Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya as Postdoctoral Fellow, working on an efficient MOST system of norbornadiene-quadricyclane couple.
Vítor Almodôvar
Researcher (Postdoctoral)
Vítor A. S. Almodôvar completed his bachelor’s in Biochemistry and master’s degree in Chemistry (with specialization in Materials Chemistry), both at University of Évora, Portugal. After both degrees, he has worked in the synthesis of new diketopyrrolopyrroles derivatives for application in DSSCs, in a research grant at University of Aveiro. Due to its interest in this field, he did his PhD in Chemistry at University of Aveiro under supervision of Doctor Augusto C. Tomé with focus on the synthesis and structural/photophysical characterization of diketopyrrolopyrroles for technical and biological applications. He also won a Fulbright scholarship in USA to work for 4 months at the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte, under supervision of Doctor Michael G. Walter.
Abhijit Nag
Reseacher (Postdoctoral)
Dr. Abhijit Nag earned his B.Sc. from Visva Bharati University (2013) and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from IIT Madras (2019) under Prof. T. Pradeep, focusing on noble metal nanoclusters and metal extraction. He continued as a postdoctoral fellow at IIT Madras (2019–2021) before moving to the University of Edinburgh (2021–2023), where he worked on precious metal recovery from electronic waste under Prof. Jason B. Love and Prof. Carole Morrison. He then joined Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi (2023–2024), researching nanomaterials. Currently, he is a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at UPC Barcelona under Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen.
Monika Shamsabadi
PhD student, Chalmers
Monika Shamsabadi was born and raised in London, United Kingdom and has a strong interest in synthetic organic chemistry. She received her MSci in Chemistry from University College London (UCL) in August 2020 where she worked within the research group of Professor Vijay Chudasama to develop a novel cysteine protecting group for her Master’s Thesis. In April 2021, Monika started her PhD studies in Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at Chalmers University of Technology where the focus of her research is on designing and synthesizing organic compounds for molecular solar thermal energy storage.
Lidiya Musherefa Muhammad
PhD student, Chalmers
Lidiya Musherefa started working as a PhD student in Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at Chalmers University of Technology in May 2021. She did her master’s degree project in Professor Wendimagegn Mammo’s group in the synthetic organic chemistry laboratory at Addis Ababa University and she focused her research on synthesis of conjugated polymers. The goal of the project was to synthesize conjugated donor polymers with the right performance characteristics for photovoltaic application. She is now working on a project focusing on design and synthesis of organic compounds for solar thermal energy storage materials.
Lorette Fernandez
PhD student, ICMAB
Lorette Fernandez started working as a PhD student in Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona in July 2022. She first graduated as a technician from the University Institute of Technology Montpellier-Sète, in Sète. She then trained for three years as a chemical engineer at the National Superior Chemistry School of Mulhouse (ENSCMu) with an exchange at Sigma Clermont and obtained a Master's degree at the University of Clermont Auvergne at the same time. She is now working on a project focusing on the characterization of the energy storage function of a combination of molecular photo-switches with phase change materials and on the investigation of the materials performance in devices.
Jacob Lynge Elholm
PhD student, ICMAB
I am from Copenhagen, Denmark. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen under the supervision of Kurt V. Mikkelsen. During my Master’s thesis, my focus was on the screening of Chemical Space for photoswitches usable for MOST systems. In Kasper’s Group, my focus will be on programming an automated chemistry setup for synthesis and characterisation. Meanwhile, I will also perform quantum chemical predictions of the molecular properties of target MOST systems.
Mila Miroshnichenko
PhD student, ICMAB
My name Mila Miroshnichenko I am from Ukraine. I study at university Taras Shevchenko in Kiev and University Angers in France. After when I finished education I started worked in industry company Enamine I have experience in organic synthesis and purification. Now I am in Kasper team and very happy start working in my PHD.
Paul Augustin Gueben
PhD student, UPC
I am Paul Gueben and I come from Belgium. I studied at the University of Mons where I obtained my Bachelor's degree and my Master's degree in Chemistry. My Master's thesis was about the development of a new method for the characterization of late-stage functionalization products using cyclic ion mobility in collaboration with a belgian pharmaceutical company. Now, I am in Kasper's group where I will be starting a cotutelle PhD between the UPC and the University of Mons with a focus on the Design, synthesis, and characterization of new energy-storing molecular photoswitches by flow chemistry and mass spectrometry.
Victoria Gneiting
MSc Student, UPC
Victoria graduated from the Szczecin International School (SIS) with an International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2017. She studied Business for two years at the West Pomeranian Business School, but eventually transferred to study Chemical Engineering at the West Pomeranian University of Technology, where she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2023. She is currently doing her Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering at UPC Barcelona East School of Engineering. Since July 2024 where she is part of Kasper Moth-Poulsen’s group at UPC, working on and learning about the synthesis of organic compounds for molecular solar thermal energy storage, as well as the concepts of flow chemistry, and the development of a new automated chemistry setups for synthesis and characterisation.
Alessandra Pace
Visiting PhD Student
Alessandra Pace was born in Pescina (Aq), Italy. She received her master's degree (2021) in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Siena. During her master's thesis, she worked on the design and synthesis of potential HDAC6 inhibitors. She later moved for 6 months to CSIC-IQAC in Barcelona (Spain), as part of her Erasmus internship, to work on the synthesis of fluorescent probes capable of detecting acid ceramidase activity. In 2022, she started her PhD at CNR-ICCOM in Florence (Italy), where she works on the design and synthesis of dyes for DS-PEC for water splitting, under the supervision of Lorenzo Zani. Currently, she carring out her PhD visiting at Prof. Kasper Moth-Poulsen's group in Barcelona (UPC, Spain), working on the synthesis and characterization of atracene molecular photoswitches for molecular solar thermal energy storage (MOST) applications.
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