Group News

Jobs, farewells and new Masters students

moranlab

The group has seen lots of change in the past months, with all postdocs who joined the group prior to September 2020 departing for jobs. Dr. Robin Isnard, our analytical chemist who was with us for six months, has taken a position at Eurofins in beautiful Aix-en-Provence, France. Dr. Ankita Malik, our sugar specialist, has taken a position at Tacalyx, an exciting startup in Berlin, Germany.

Andrei Golushko, an M2 student from the CSC graduate school, has finished his internship and has moved to the lab of Prof. Nicolas Giuseppone, also in Strasbourg. Corinna Heusel, our visiting Masters student from Münster, finished her internship and has returned to Münster to carry out her Masters project with Prof. Frank Glorius. Best of luck to all and good luck in the future. You will be missed!

On the incoming side, we welcome Edouard Voegtli, who joins us for his M2 internship. He joins our two other M2 students from the CSC Graduate School, Valentyn Pozhydaiev and Maciej Piejko. Finally, we welcome Wahnyalo Kazone, who joins us as a much needed analytical technician. Welcome all!

Dr. Robert Mayer joins the lab

moranlab

A warm welcome to Robert Mayer, who joins us from the group of Prof. Herbert Mayr and Prof. Armin Ofial at the LMU Munich, where he worked on kinetic, mechanistic, and computational studies to elucidate fundamental reactivity trends of different classes of electrophiles and nucleophiles. In our group, Robert will work on mechanistic challenges in prebiotic chemistry. Welcome, Robert!

Dr. Florent Noel

moranlab

Congrats to Florent Noel on successfully defending his thesis! He is the seventh PhD student to graduate from the group. Special thanks to jury members Prof. Philippe Belmont, Dr. Christophe Bour and Dr. Mihaela Gulea for being part of the jury, which was done partly in person and partly over Zoom. Unfortunately, no pot de thèse was possible due to the coronavirus pandemic, but we will have a real party as soon as it is feasible (hopefully by the summer)!

ERC Consolidator Grant

moranlab

Joseph has been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant (2 million €)! The award will allow us to pursue our dream to create reaction networks that resemble biological metabolism. Informal inquiries regarding postdoctoral positions related to this project are encouraged at any time. 

erc

“Forcheurs Jean-Marie Lehn” Prize

moranlab

Joseph has received the 2020 “Forcheurs Jean-Marie Lehn” prize together with Harun Tüysüz (Max–Planck-Institut for Coal research, Mülheim, Germany) for their collaborative work on transition metals in prebiotic chemistry. The prize supports promising collaborations between young French and German researchers in the areas of health, pharmacology or chemistry. The prize is co-organized by the French Embassy in Berlin and the Université Franco-Allemande, and generously sponsored by BASF France and Sanofi Deutschland. A ceremony was held in Berlin on September 29, 2020. More information can be found here.

Dr. Nicolas Zeidan joins the lab

moranlab

A warm welcome to Nicolas Zeidan, who has obtained a Marie Curie fellowship from the European Commission to join our lab. The project is called NonEnzymatic and will investigate non-enzymatic metabolic reactions in prebiotic chemistry. Nicolas comes to us from Mark Lautens’ group at the University of Toronto, where he worked on Pd-catalyzed methods for heterocycle synthesis. Congrats and welcome, Nicolas!

Abhijit leaves for IICT Hyderabad

moranlab

Farewell to Marie Curie postdoc Abhijit Sau, who leaves us for a tenure track position at IICT Hyderabad. Abhijit will work at home for a couple of months to write grants and finish papers before launching his new lab. Congratulations and good luck!