People

The group currently consists of 1 Professor, 1 CNRS research scientist, 5 postdoctoral fellows, 8 PhD students, 1 analytical technician and 1 administrative assistant.

CNRS Research Scientists (1)

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Dr. David Leboeuf

After graduating from ESPCI with an engineering degree, David pursued his Ph.D. with Pr. Max Malacria at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie until December 2009, where he explored new cobalt-, rhodium-, and gold-catalyzed cyclizations. After two and half years of postdoctoral research at the University of Rochester with Pr. Alison Frontier studying Nazarov electrocyclizations and one year at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ) with Pr. Antonio Echavarren developing new gold-catalysts, he was appointed by the CNRS as Chargé de Recherche (Assistant Professor) in 2013 at the Université Paris-Sud. In 2017, he became Associate Professor and joined our lab in November 2019 to further his burgeoning work on the use of hexafluoroisopropanol in synthesis. He was awarded the habilitation to direct research (HDR) in November 2020. Outside work, he is a huge fan of PSG and enjoys reading, travelling and a nice glass of gin. Click here for his personal homepage.

Postdoctoral Fellows (5)

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Quentin Dherbassy (PhD 2017, Strasbourg)

Quentin received his PhD in 2017 in the group of Prof. Françoise Colobert, working alongside Dr. Joanna Wencel-Delord (CNRS, Strasbourg, France). His doctoral studies focused on the control of axial chirality by sulfoxide‐directed C−H activation. He joined the Procter Group (University of Manchester, UK) as a PDRA in 2018, focusing on borylative copper‐catalyzed asymmetric multicomponent reactions. He then joined our group in December 2020, where he is working with Dr. Kamila Muchowska on the prebiotic origins and functions of biological cofactors. Outside of work, he enjoys music and concerts, cinema, sports as well as hanging out with friends.

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Robert Mayer (PhD 2020, LMU Munich)

Robert was born and raised in Kempten, Germany. He studied chemistry at the University of Munich, where he joined the laboratory of Herbert Mayr and Armin Ofial in November 2017 to pursue a Ph.D. in Physical-Organic Chemistry funded by a Kekulè fellowship of the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie. During his Ph.D., Robert performed kinetic, mechanistic, and computational studies to elucidate fundamental reactivity trends of different classes of electrophiles and nucleophiles. Additionally, he developed new methods that help to get a quantitative understanding of Lewis acid catalysis. In February 2021, Robert joined the Moran lab as a postdoctoral fellow to work on mechanistic challenges in prebiotic chemistry and was awarded a DFG Fellowship shortly thereafter. Outside of the lab, Robert can be found cooking, in nature, pursuing photography, or the opera houses of Europe.

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Weiqiang Chen (PhD 2021, TU Berlin)

Weiqiang Chen was born in Shandong, China. He received his bachelor’s degree from Fuzhou University. Then he received training from Prof. Huadong Wang at Fudan University, where he obtained a Master’s degree in chemical engineering. From June 2014 to June 2016, he had a two-year-research stay in the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (CAS). In October 2016, he joined Prof. Martin Oestreich’s group and developed user-friendly surrogates/alternative reagents for gaseous and toxic chemicals. Weiqiang joined the Moran lab as a postdoctoral fellow in prebiotic & synthetic chemistry in January 2022. Besides chemistry, Weiqiang also enjoys spending time with family, visiting galleries, and travelling. He expects and appreciates new experiences in chemistry and in life.

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Silvana Pinna (PhD 2022, UCL)

Silvana was born and raised in Rome (Italy) before moving to Spain with her family in 2009, where she completed her secondary education. She obtained a Master of Research in Biochemistry at the University College London (UCL, UK) in the group of Nick Lane, where she stayed for her PhD. During her PhD, Silvana focused on investigating a possible primordial emergence of ATP, the “universal energy currency” of the cell, specifically how ATP synthesis can be enhanced through catalysis by several geochemically plausible factors. She joined the Moran lab in January 2022 to work on prebiotic phosphorylation and further her research in the origin of life. Outside the lab, Silvana is keen on space and astrobiology, and she is involved in several space-related associations. Other interests include travelling, going to the theatre, singing and cooking.

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Max Van Hoof (PhD 2023, KU Leuven)

Max was born in Leuven, Belgium. In 2017, he joined the group of Martin Klußmann at the Max-Planck institute für Kohlenforschung as an intern to investigate the mechanism of Cu-catalyzed aerobic oxidative couplings of N-aryltetrahydroisoquinolines. He obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry at the KU Leuven working on acid-mediated ring opening of triazolo[5,1-a]isoquinoline in the group of Wim Dehaen. For his PhD he stayed in the same group but under cosupervision by Steven De Jonghe from the Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy (Dominique Schols, KU Leuven), and focused on the development of CXCR2 and CCR7 chemokine receptor antagonists targeting a conserved intracellular binding site. In February 2023, he joined our group to explore the advantages of HFIP in the development of new catalytic synthetic methodologies. Outside the lab, Max enjoys going to concerts and music festivals, cooking, travelling, board sports and reading.

PhD Students (8)

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Sophia Rauscher (MSc 2019, Freiburg).

Sophia was born in Würzburg and raised in Gemünden am Main, Germany. After completing the French-German bachelor’s programme Regio Chimica, she obtained her Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Freiburg in 2019. She joined our group in September 2019 to work on reactions associated with prebiotic metabolism. Outside work, she enjoys hiking, yoga and cooking.

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Cyprien Muller (MSc 2020, Strasbourg)

Cyprien was born in 1997 in Metz (France). In 2018, he obtained his BSc degree in physical chemistry in Strasbourg, and then enrolled in the Graduate School for Complex Systems Chemistry of Strasbourg, from which he graduated in 2020. He joined the team as a PhD student in August 2020 (funded by Total) to work on Vibrational Strong Coupling and supramolecular catalysis. In his free time, he likes cooking, playing and watching sports, and is a big Racing club of Strasbourg fan. He also enjoys video games and used to be a content producer on YouTube.

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Emilie Werner (MSc 2020, ENS Paris)

Emilie was born and raised in Strasbourg, France. In 2016, she left her hometown to pursue higher education at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris. In 2020, she obtained her ENS Diploma as well as her MSc in chemistry and life sciences from the Paris Sciences et Lettres University. In October 2020, Emilie joined our team as a PhD student to work on prebiotic chemistry. Her PhD is financed by the Ecole Normale Supérieure. In her free time, she enjoys travelling, baking and cooking but also a good pint on a sunny terrace.

Joris Zimmermann (MSc 2020, Strasbourg)

Joris was born in Mulhouse and spent his childhood in the surrounding region. He came to Strasbourg for high school and completed his MSc in Chemistry and Biology in 2020. He joined the group in September 2020 with an MRT fellowship to work on understanding the origin of life. Outside work, he enjoys working out, playing sports (badminton, volley-ball, football) as well as playing video games, cooking, reading and cinema.

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Valentyn Pozhydaiev (MSc 2021, Strasbourg)

Valentyn was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine. Upon graduation from high school in 2016, he moved to France and pursued his bachelor and master studies of chemistry at the University of Strasbourg, from which he graduated in 2021. Valentyn joined the team as a PhD student in October 2021 to develop novel catalytic methodologies employing HFIP and perform more in-depth mechanistic studies to better understand the role of the solvent. Outside work, he practices ashtanga yoga and learns software engineering.

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Maciej Piejko (MSc 2021, Strasbourg)

Maciej was born in Créteil near Paris but spent most of his life in Poland where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Warsaw. He then moved to Strasbourg to pursue a Masters in the CSC Graduate School and started his PhD in the Moran group in October 2021 on Vibrational Strong Coupling (VSC). Being himself half-Polish, half-French, he enjoys the multicultural environment and learning new languages. Outside of the lab he has many other passions including sailplanes, playing piano and cooking.

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Shunjiro Sodei (MSc 2022, Tokyo Institute of Technology)

Shunjiro was born and raised in Miyagi, Japan. He obtained a BSc in Earth Science at Kyoto University in 2020, and then an MSc in Chemistry in 2022 at the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Earth-Life Science Institute. In July 2022, he joined the team as a PhD student with a French Government Scholarship to work on prebiotic chemistry. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music, playing jazz drums, and playing video games.

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Jonas Dechent (MSc 2022, LMU)

Jonas was born and raised near Mainz, Germany. He obtained a BSc in Chemistry and Biochemistry from LMU Munich, and a MSc in Chemistry from the same institution after completing his master thesis at EPFL. He joined the group for his PhD in October 2022 to work on prebiotic chemistry. Besides work and volunteering, he spends his time enjoying wine, cooking, nature, sports and reading.

Licence and Masters Students

Sinan Bascil (L3, 2023)

Analytical Technician

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Wahnyalo Kazone

Administrative Assistant

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Annia Bertrand

Former Postdoctoral Fellows

Florian Falk (2012-2013). French Embassy fellow. After: BaChem, Basel, Switzerland Current position: Bayer CropScience, Basel Switzerland.

Malik Hellal (2012-2015). Marie Curie fellow. Current position: Senior scientist, PolyPlus-Transfection, Illkirch, France.

Leandro Cotos-Muñoz (2014-2015). Current position: Postdoc at ECPM, Strasbourg.

Edward Richmond (2014-2018). Leverhulme Trust fellow. Current position: Laboratory leader, BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Jan N. Gorges (2018-2019). Current position: Laboratory leader, BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Kamila Muchowska (2016-2019). After: CNRS Research Scientist (equivalent to Research Assistant Professor), Strasbourg, France (www.muchowska.com) (2019-2022). Current: Associate in integrative consulting, McKinsey, London, UK (2023-).

Robin Isnard (2020). Current position: Chemical Engineer, Eurofins, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Abhijit Sau (2018-2020) Marie Curie postdoc VSC_Cat. Current position: Assistant professor, IIT Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India (group website).

Ankita Malik (2019-2021) Current position: Scientist, Tacalyx, Berlin, Germany.

Nicolas Zeidan (2020-2022) Marie Curie postdoc NonEnzymatic. Current position: Senior scientist, Roche, Basel, Switzerland.

Marie Vayer (2020-2022) Current position: CNRS Research Scientist (equivalent to Research Assistant Professor), Paris-Saclay University, France (LinkedIn page).

Former PhD Students

Eléna Wolf (2012-2015). MRT Fellow. After: Postdoc at BASF JONAS (2015-2017). Current position: Laboratory leader, BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

Marian Dryzhakov (2012-2016). Région Alsace fellow. After: JSPS Postdoc at University of Tokyo, Japan (Prof. Makoto Fujita). Current position: Business Development and External Affairs, Tokyo Tech Startups, Tokyo, Japan.

Sreejith Varma (2015-2018). ERC PhD student. Current position: Postdoc at Charité Hospital, Berlin, Germany (Prof. Markus Ralser).

Vuk Vukovic (2015-2019). MRT Fellow. Current position: European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines, Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France.

Lucas Lethuillier (2016-2019). ERC PhD student. After: Industrially-funded postdoc working on a collaboration between Moran/Ebbesen labs and a major chemical company. Current: 42 Lyon Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France.

Elodie Chevallot-Beroux (2016-2019). ERC PhD student. After: Research scientist, Inovame, Marlenheim, France. Current: FI Group, Lyon, France.

Florent Noel (2017-2020). Région Grand-Est PhD student. Current position: Postdoc, Dr. Géraldine Masson group, Paris, France.

Paul Chatelain (2017-2021). MRT Fellow. Current position: Senior Process Engineer, ASM International, Helsinki, Finland.

Shaofei Zhang (2017-2021). Chinese Scholarship Council PhD student. Current position: Scientist, GenScript, Nanjing, China.

Jing Yi (2018-2022). Chinese Scholarship Council PhD student.

Harpreet Kaur (2019-2023). Current position: Moving to Toronto, Canada.

Former Visiting PhD Students

Anton Gudz (Gagné group, UNC Chapel Hill, USA, July 2018-February 2019)

Stefania Musolino (Smith/Taylor groups, St Andrews, Scotland, August-October 2017)

Kazuki Fuji (Suga group, Okayama University, Japan, March 2015)

Ismat Ullah Khan (Hassan group, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan, Feb-Aug 2015; Current position: Assistant professor, Gomal University, Pakistan)

Junya Yamamoto (Suga group, Okayama University, Japan, Nov 2015)

Former Internal Masters Project Students

Sergiu Bicic (M2, 2021), Tanguy Rieu (M2, 2021), Maciej Piejko (M2 Strasbourg, 2021), Edouard Voegtl (M2 Strasbourg, 2021), Andrei Golushko (M2, 2020), Valentyn Pozhydaiev (M1, 2020; M2 2021), Martin Power (M2, 2020), Joris Zimmermann (M2, 2020), Louis-Albin Gravillier (M2, 2020), Eugènie Pincemail (M1, 2020), Capucine Loth (M1, 2019), Subhradip Kundu (M2, 2018), Florent Noel (M2, 2017), Paul Chatelain (M2, 2017), Jing Yi (M1, 2016; M2, 2017), Guang Li (M1, 2015; M2, 2016), Nour Hussein (M1, 2015), Margot Combas (M2, 2014), Anaëlle Bolley (M1, 2014)