Prof. Dr. Robby Vroemans

Robby Vroemans obtained his PhD in Chemistry under the guidance of Prof. Wim Dehaen at KU Leuven in 2019, focusing on the study of naphthyltriazole atropisomers. Subsequently, he moved to the University of Antwerp, where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher under the advisorship of Prof. Bert Maes on lignin-derived plastic additives. Additionally, he conducted research stays in the groups of Prof. Thierry Ollevier (Université Laval, Canada) in 2019 and Prof. Serge Bourbigot (Université de Lille, France) in 2024. Since 2024, he holds an assistant professor position (tenure track) in the ORSY division at the University of Antwerp, with research interests in organic materials for sustainable chemistry.

Dr. Sergey Sergeyev

Sergey obtained his PhD in Chemistry in 2002 from the University of Zürich, Switzerland. After a two-year postdoctoral stay with François Diederich (ETH Zürich)  he spent about five years at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Brussels as research fellow. In 2009, he started his job as a research manager at the University of Antwerp. Since 2020 he holds a position as a research manager of the Center of Excellence “CASCH: Catalysis for Sustainable Organic Chemistry”.

Philippe Franck

Philippe is currently a technician in the ORSY division. His responsibilities include the maintenance and repair of all equipment, training of new co-workers, lab safety and stock management. Philippe studied Chemistry at the KdG Hogeschool in Antwerp and obtained his professional bachelor's degree in 2006. For his bachelor thesis he selected the ORSY division, working under supervision of Prof. Dr. Bert Maes.

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Dr. Rui An

Rui is currently a technician in the ORSY division. His responsibilities include the NMR facility, ICT, lab safety, training of new co-workers, purchasing, and the chemical inventory. Rui obtained his PhD at the University of Antwerp under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Vera Meynen in 2025, focused on organic-inorganic hybrid materials.

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Dr. Xingfeng Bai

Xingfeng Bai obtained his PhD in 2017 under the joint guidance of Prof. Chungu Xia from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Prof. Liwen Xu from Hangzhou Normal University. He worked as an junior researcher in LICP (2017-2018) and as postdoctoral fellow in Prof Yixin Lu’s group at the National University of Singapore (2018-2020). He joined Prof Bert Maes’s group at the University of Antwerp in October 2020 and later was awarded an EU Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship (2021). His research interests include asymmetric synthesis & catalysis, and valorisation of bio-based chemicals. He is currently working on the PROMIS project dealing with the development of renewable (blocked) isocyanate building blocks.

Dr. Céderic Ver Elst

Céderic studied Chemistry at the University of Antwerp and obtained his MSc in Chemistry in 2019. His master thesis was performed in the Drug Chemistry Group at Johnson & Johnson in Beerse (Belgium). He subsequently joined the Maes Group to pursue a PhD in Organic Chemistry, focusing on the synthesis of biorenewable platform molecules, which was supported by a Strategic Basic Research Scholarship of Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). He successfully defended his PhD thesis titled "Synthesis of Levulinic Acid and Derivatives From Muconic Acid" in 2025. The same year, he rejoined the Drug Chemistry Group at Johnson & Johnson as an external postdoc, where he currently develops novel methods to study the stability of active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Dr. Sayan Roy

Sayan completed his PhD in 2020 under the guidance of Prof. Saumen Hajra at the CBMR in Lucknow. Then he worked as an Institute Postdoctoral Researcher with Prof. Debabrata Maiti at IIT Bombay. In 2022, he joined  Uyeda's group at Purdue University. Most recently, in December 2024, he became a member of the research team of Prof. Maes at the University of Antwerp. His research interests focus on organic synthesis, C-H activation, and the utilization of biorenewable chemicals.

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Dr. Riccardo Pedrazzani

Riccardo carried out his academic formation at the University of Bologna (Italy) under the supervision of Prof. Marco Bandini and Prof. Magda Monari, obtaining his PhD in Chemistry in March 2023. There he worked extensively on ligand design and synthesis for Au(I) mediated transformations. He joined the Maes Group in November 2023 as postdoctoral researcher and he is currently investigating catalyst heterogenization for biomass-derived feedstock valorization into specialty & fine chemicals.

Dr. Mathias Bal

Mathias Bal obtained his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Chemistry from the University of Antwerp in respectively 2016 and 2018. He obtained his PhD in chemistry from the University of Antwerp in 2025 under guidance of Prof. Bert U. W. Maes, working on the usage of acid as a catalyst and reagent in sustainable reactions with arenes. Currently, he is doing postdoctoral research in the Maes group. His research interests include green and sustainable chemistry, the synthesis and valorization of biorenewable platform molecules and photochemistry.

 

Dr. Mojgan Hadian

Mojgan Hadian obtained her PhD in April 2023 under the supervision of Prof. Dömling at the University of Groningen. Her PhD research focused on the design and synthesis of small molecules, as well as on developing novel synthetic methodologies based on multi-component reactions and innovative high-throughput medicinal chemistry. In January 2023, she started as a Senior Scientist at Symeres. In October 2025, she joined Prof. Maes’s group at the University of Antwerp as a postdoctoral researcher. She is currently working on the iBOF project “Modified carbon surfaces for sustainable catalysis”.

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Dries De Vos

Dries De Vos obtained his BSc and MSc degree in chemistry at the University of Antwerp in 2018 and 2020, respectively. His master thesis was performed in the group of Prof. Carsten Bolm at RWTH Aachen University. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Organic Chemistry at ORSY, focusing on the development of visible-light mediated photocatalytic reactions using organosulfur compounds. His PhD work is supported by a Fundamental Research Scholarship of Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO).

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Loïc Mineur

Loïc studied chemistry at the University of Namur. He performed his master thesis in the group of prof. Berionni and obtained his MSc in Chemistry in 2020. He subsequently joined the Maes Group to pursue a PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2021, focusing on the valorisation of biobased waste streams towards building blocks for the chemical industry. His PhD work is supported by a BOF concerted research action (GOA) grant.

Ewoud Smet

Ewoud Smet obtained his BSc degree in Bioscience Engineering from the University of Antwerp and his MSc degree in Bioscience Engineering from the University of Ghent. He conducted his master’s thesis project in the SynBioC research group under the supervision of Prof. Christian V. Stevens. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Maes Group of ORSY in the framework of the Flemish interuniversity iBOF project Next-BIOREF. His research is focused on biorenewable chemicals from ligno-cellulose and flow chemistry.

 

Daniël S. Verdoorn

Daniël S. Verdoorn obtained his master’s degree in chemistry, as a joint-degree title from the University of Amsterdam and the VU Amsterdam. He performed his undergraduate research on the synthesis of aspidosperma alkaloids in the group of Prof. Ruijter. Afterwards he started as a joint doctoral student in the research group of Prof. Maes (University of Antwerp) and in the research group of Prof. Orru (University of Maastricht). Currently, his research is focusing on base-metal catalyzed isocyanide insertion, radical isocyanide multicomponent and cascade chemistry.

 

Jonas Wuyts

Jonas obtained his MSc in Bioscience Engineering: Catalytic Technology at KU Leuven, where he did his master thesis in the group of Prof. Dirk De Vos. Captivated by research, he decided to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry within the Maes group. He is currently working on the AC2GEN Moonshot project (Catalisti - VLAIO), in which he is developing a novel method to obtain acrylates from second-generation sugars.

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Marnix van der Kolk

Marnix received his BSc and MSc in Chemistry from the Radboud University in Nijmegen where he performed undergraduate research in the group of Prof. Wilson and Prof. Rutjes. During his master he performed a research stay in the group of Prof. Cardenas at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Afterwards, he worked on a Eurostars project under Prof. Rutjes on allosteric CNS modulators before starting his PhD at the University of Antwerp in the Maes Group. His current research entails the application of graphenes in organic synthesis.

Thijs De Vos

Thijs obtained his MSc of Chemistry degree from the University of Antwerp in 2023. He performed his Master Thesis in the group of Prof. Frank Glorius at the Universität Münster. Afterwards, he joined the Maes Group as PhD student, where he works on the development of alternative synthetic routes towards organofluorides. His doctoral research is supported by a Fundamental Research Scholarship of Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO).

Shiping Zhong

Shiping Zhong obtained her MSc degree in chemistry at Shaanxi Normal University in 2024. She is currently pursuing a PhD in the Maes Group at ORSY, focusing on the development of novel mechanochemical reactions. Her PhD work is supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

 

Elias Van Achteren

Elias obtained his BSc and MSc of chemistry degree at KU Leuven. During his studies he gained experience in catalysis from his internship at J&J in Beerse and from his master thesis with prof. Francisco De Azambuja. To further improve his skills he joined the Maes group at ORSY to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry. He is currently working on catalyst development in the framework of the iBOF project “Modified carbon surfaces for sustainable catalysis”.

 

Marappan Pradeep Kumar

Marappan Pradeep Kumar holds a BSc in Chemistry from Bharathiar University (2018–2021) and an MSc in Chemical Sciences from Pondicherry University (2021–2023). He gained research experience through a summer research fellowship at IIT Madras under the guidance of Prof. G. Sekar. He served as a Project Assistant in the OMC research group at the National Institute of Technology Karaikal, Puducherry, working under the supervision of Dr. Vasudevan Dhayalan. His current research interests encompass Heterogeneous Catalysis and Green Chemistry.