Professors

University of Amsterdam

Professor Peter Schoenmakers

Peter Schoenmakers has been a full-time professor in Analytical Chemistry (including its applications in forensic science) at the University of Amsterdam since 2002. His research focuses on analytical separations in general and on multi-dimensional liquid chromatography in particular. He obtained a Masters Degree in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands and performed his PhD research with Professor Leo de Galan in Delft and with Professor Barry Karger in Boston, MA, USA. Thereafter he worked for Philips in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) and for Shell in Amsterdam and in Houston, TX, USA. While at Shell became a part-time professor in Polymer Analysis at the University of Amsterdam in 1998. Peter Schoenmakers was or is also director of the van ‘t Hoff Institute of Molecular Science (HIMS) of the University of Amsterdam, an editor of the Journal of Chromatography A and the Education Director of COAST, The Netherlands’ public-private-partnership organization on analytical chemistry. In 2016 he was awarded an ERC Advanced grant for the STAMP project. Recent international awards include the Dal Nogare Award (2019). The Fritz-Pregl Medal (2018), the CASSS Award (2015), the Csaba Horváth Memorial Award (2015), the John H. Knox Medal of the RSC (2014), the Martin medal of the Chromatographic Society (2011), and the EAS Award for Excellence in Separation Science (2010).

Assistant Professor Andrea Gargano

Andrea Gargano is a tenure track assistant professor at the van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Science, University of Amsterdam (NL). In his research, he works at the development of analytical chemistry technology for the characterization of macromolecules (keeping them intact). He received his MSc in from the University of Pavia (IT) and his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna (AU), did his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Amsterdam (NL) and has been guest research associate in several labs in EU and USA. Andrea is an enthusiastic separation science experimentalist and published research on the synthesis of stationary phases, two-dimensional LC separations and LC-MS methods for (intact) proteins analysis. He received the Ernst-Bayer Award in 2014, the Csaba Horváth Young-Scientist Award in 2015 and he was awarded an NWO-VENI research fellowship for his project on Intact-Protein Analysis (IPA).

Vrije Universiteit

Professor Govert Somsen

Govert Somsen studied Chemistry at the VU with a specialization in Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. He obtained his doctorate at the VU on the coupling of liquid chromatography with vibrational spectroscopy for the identification of compounds in complex mixtures. In 1996, he was appointed assistant professor in Pharmaceutical Analysis at the University of Groningen. In 2001 he became associate professor in Biomedical Analysis at Utrecht University. During this appointment he was also part-time reader (lector) on Analytical Techniques in Life Sciences at Avans University for Applied Sciences in Breda. In 2013, Somsen was appointed full professor at VU heading the Division of BioAnalytical Chemistry. He is (co-)author of more than 180 papers and made significant contributions to the development, optimization and application of CE and CE-MS techniques in (bio)pharmaceutical and biomedical analysis.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Professor Gert Desmet

Gert Desmet heads the department of chemical engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. His research mainly focuses on the miniaturization and automation of separation methods, as well as on the investigation and the modeling of flow effects in chromatographic systems. He is a past chair of the Chemistry Panel of the Flemish National Science Fund and currently is an Associate Editor for the journal "Analytical Chemistry" and holder of an ERC Advanced Grant. In 2008, he received the “Emerging Leader in Chromatography”-award from LC-GC. In 2009, he received the Silver Jubilee Medal of the Chromatographic Society of the UK. In 2017, he won the JFK Huber Lecture Award. In 2019, he won the American Chemical Society Award for Chromatography.