Shakil Ahmed, postdoc

Shakil completed his BSc from S. A. Jaipuria College (University of Calcutta, India) and obtained his MSc from IIT Hyderabad (India), conducting research on organometallic complexes for homogeneous catalysis. He was awarded a PhD in 2023 from IISc Bangalore (India) under the guidance of Professor Partha Sarathi Mukherjee. His doctoral research focused on the development of Self-Assembled Coordination Architectures for Fluorescence Modulation, Photocatalysis, and Light Harvesting. 

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 311 | Email

Louise Miton, postdoc

Louise obtained a BSc in Chemistry in 2018 and a MSc in Molecular Chemistry in 2020 from Sorbonne University (France), conducting research on switchable molecular tweezers under the Guidance of Dr. Guillaume Vives. She was awarded a PhD in 2023 from “Ecole Centrale de Marseille” under the guidance of Prof. Alexandre Martinez, Prof. Vincent Robert and Dr. Yoann Cotelle. The work carried out in her thesis was based on the synthesis of new heteroditopic hemicryptophane receptors, combining electron-rich and electron-deficient units to exploit anion-π interactions for the recognition of anionic molecules, and their synergy with π-cationic interactions for the recognition of di-charged molecules (ion pairs, zwitterions) in confined environments. 

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 311 | Email

Prachi Verma, postdoc

Prachi obtained a Bachelor´s degree in Science in 2011 & a Master´s degree in Chemistry in 2013 from the University of Lucknow (India), conducting research on total synthesis of natural product. She was awarded a PhD in 2019 from Centre of Biomedical Research (India) under the guidance of Professor Ganesh Pandey. Her doctoral research focuses on developing a unified approach for the enantioselective total synthesis of Amaryllidaceae class of alkaloids. Thereafter she joined Jubilant Biosys, a pharmaceutical company based in India where she worked as a research scientist for a year. Later in 2021 she joined the group of Prof. Petri Pihko at the University of Jyväskylä as a postdoc focusing on the total synthesis of marine natural products before joining the group in 2024.

Office: YO 517 | Lab: YO 419 | Email

Alice Gable, PhD student

Alice earned a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Strasbourg (France) in 2020. During this time, she spent one year at the University of Nagoya (Japan) as an international student (NUPACE program). Then she began a MSc in Molecular and Supramolecular Chemistry in Strasbourg. She did a six-month research internship in the group of Prof. Christoph Schalley at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) before joining the group in 2022.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 419 | Email

Kirill Geyl, PhD student

Kirill received a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry in 2020 and a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry in 2022 from Saint Petersburg State University (Russia). He joined the group in 2023 to pursue his PhD degree in Supramolecular Chemistry.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 419 | Email

Avijit Jaiswal, PhD student

Avijit obtained a Bachelor´s degree in Science in 2015 & a Master´s degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 2017 from the University of Lucknow (India). Thereafter he joined Jubilant Biosys, a pharmaceutical company based in India where he worked as a research associate for more than 4 years. Later in 2022 he joined the group of Prof. Petri Pihko at the University of Jyväskylä as a research assistant before joining the group in 2023.

Office: YO 517 | Lab: YO 422 | Email

Matteo Piro, PhD student

Matteo obtained a Bachelor’s degree in 2021 and a Master’s degree in 2025 from the University of Milan (Italy), where he completed a thesis on the sugar scaffold modifications for the development of antibacterial inhibitors. During his MSc, he also took part to an Erasmus program in Lille (France) focusing on spectroscopy. He joined the group in January 2026.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 419 | Email

Sergey Fisher, postdoc

Sergey obtained his B.Sc. in metal-organic chemistry and his M.Sc. in the synthesis of carbon nanorings at Humboldt University of Berlin. He then joined the group of Prof. Šolomek at the University of Bern, which later moved to the University of Amsterdam. During his PhD, Sergey studied the assembly process of asymmetric covalent organic cages. As part of his doctoral work, he also completed a research exchange at the University of Bern with PD Grabowsky, investigating halogen interactions in single crystals.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 311 | Email

Farhad Mohammed, postdoc

Farhad obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Chemistry from Maynooth University (Ireland) in 2021, graduating at the top of his class and receiving the prestigious Kathleen Lonsdale Prize. He was awarded a PhD in 2025 under the guidance of Dr. Robert Elmes with the John & Pat Hume Scholarship. His doctoral research focused on the design and synthesis of novel peptidomimetic macrocycles as functional supramolecular systems for anion recognition and host-guest chemistry, before joining the group in 2026.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 418 | Email

Romain Guechaichia, postdoc

Romain obtained a BSc in Physics and Chemistry 2020 and a MSc in Molecular Chemistry in 2022 from the University of Angers (France), conducting research on polymeric nanoparticles for photothermal therapy under the supervision of Dr. Franck Camerel (ISCR, France). He was awarded a PhD in 2025 from the University of Angers under the guidance of Dr. Sebatien Goeb and Pr. Marc Salle. His work focused on the formation of redox active coordination cages and the study of their encapsulation capacities as well as their ability to form interlocked structures upon redox stimulation.

Office: YE 301 | Lab: YO 311 | Email