New PhD candidates

A warm welcome to our new PhD candidates! We would like to introduce them to you. Photos left to right:

Robin Conradi (Utrecht University) was born in Amersfoort, where he did VWO, and moved to Utrecht for his Bachelor's in chemistry and Master's in nanomaterials science at Utrecht University. He performed his Master's thesis about olefin polymerization in the Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis group. His industrial internship was performed at Ioniqa Technologies, Eindhoven. In his free time, he likes running, playing video games, and enjoying nature and culture while traveling around the world.

Laura Campanella (Utrecht University) was born in a small town in the North of Italy. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry at the University of Insubria, Como. Then, for 6 months she joined the R&D Department of Eptatech the business brand of Eptanova corporate dedicated to innovative technologies such as Printed Electronics, with a focus on stretchable and wearable electronics. Afterward, Laura moved to Bologna to study in the international Master course Low Carbon Technologies and Sustainable Chemistry at Bologna University. She conducted a thesis project based on the 6 months experience at imec – the Netherlands on the Student Project “Optical chemical sensing for biofluid monitoring”. In January 2025, Laura joined the SCMB group at Utrecht University to pursue a PhD on the preparation of Ordered meso-porous Graphene from Methane under the supervision of Alfons van Blaaderen.

Stefan Bismeijer (Utrecht University) was born and raised in the Netherlands. He did both his bachelor’s in chemistry and Masters in Nanomaterials science at Utrecht University. To finish of his bachelor’s, he investigated propene epoxidation over gold catalysts supported on zeotype materials, at the Materials Chemistry and Catalysis group. For his master thesis project, he went back to the same group to delve into alkali and alkaline earth metal promotion during catalytic methane decomposition. An internship at TNO Eindhoven on CO₂ electroreduction to ethylene brought his master to an end. After his obtaining his degree, Stefan decided to go back to the group where he did both his bachelor and master project. Under the supervision of Prof. Petra de Jongh, he will be working on catalysts for CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol.