People

Maarten Smulders

Maarten Smulders was born in 1981 in Liempde, the Netherlands. He received his MSc degree cum laude in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry in 2005 from the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. From the same University he received in 2009 his PhD degree under the supervision of Prof. Bert Meijer for research on supramolecular polymers and chiral amplification phenomena (PhD thesis available here).

In 2010 he joined the group of Prof. Jonathan Nitschke at the University of Cambridge (UK) on a NWO Rubicon postdoctoral grant, working on self-assembled metal-organic cages. In October 2012 he moved back to the Netherlands, to work as a NWO Veni grantee in affiliation with Prof. Jeroen Cornelissen, at the University of Twente, on responsive self-assembled materials. In October 2013, he took up a position as assistant professor (tenure-track) in the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, headed by Prof. Han Zuilhof, at the Wageningen University. After joining the Wageningen Young Academy (WYA) in January 2016, he became one of the two co-chairs of the WYA in Januari 2017; a position he held until April 2019. His membership of the WYA ended April 2021. In 2018 he was awarded a Vidi grant from NWO that allowed him to fortify his research program in dynamic polymer materials. In March 2019 he was promoted to tenured associate professor. In September 2022, Maarten joined the University of Ghent as a guest professor in the Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry.

ORCID profile
Google Scholar profile

Current group members

  • Sagar Raut (Postdoc): Shape-transforming covalent adaptable networks.
  • Vahid Asadi Alghalandis (Postdoc): Phase separation in covalent adaptable networks.
  • Simon van Hurne (PhD student): Dynamic polymer networks based on dynamic-covalent bonds.
  • Annemieke van Dam (PhD student): Self-healing antifouling fluorinated polymer brushes.
  • Zhen Yang (PhD student): Development of an ingestible sensor for gastrointestinal tract analysis.
  • Thijmen Voorthuizen (PhD student): Imine-based covalent organic frameworks.
  • Natalia Bornosuz (PhD student): recyclable polycarbonates by dynamic covalent chemistry.

Thesis Students

  • Arjen Bel (working with Sagar): project on dynamic non-isocyanate polyurethanes.

Former group members

  • Dr. Lucas Teunissen
  • Dr. Sybren Schoustra
  • Dr. Shauni Keller (currently working at Radboud University, Nijmegen)
  • Dr. Esther Roeven (graduated Dec 1, 2021; now working at Canon).
  • Dr. Esther van Andel (graduated Nov 9, 2018; currently working at Leiden University Medical Centre).
  • Dr. Ghazal Tavakoli (currently working at Universität zu Köln, Germany).
  • Dr. Digvijay Gahtory (graduated May 30, 2018).
  • Medea Kosian (currently working at Calco).
  • Dr. Stefanie Lange (currently working at Huntsman Advanced Materials GmbH, Germany).
  • Dr. Fatima Garcia (currently working at Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain).
  • Dr. Zhanhua Wang (currently working at Sichuan University, China).
  • Dr. Frank Versluis (currently working at Delft University of Technology, NL).