Dr. Mathieu Baltussen

/in ,

On 22 September 2025, Mathieu Baltussen successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Thinking in Molecules” and became the 32nd Dr. in the Huck group. Not only did he obtain his PhD but he did so in style by being awarded the PhD cum laude!

Congratulations, Mathieu!! We are exceptionally proud of your wonderful achievement! 👏🎉

Dr. Melde Witmond

/in ,

On 16 September 2025, Melde Witmond successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “To signal or not to signal” and became the 31st Dr. in the Huck group.

Congratulations, Melde!! We wish you all the best with your future career! 🥂🎉

Huck Group Outing

/in , ,

On the 21st of August, we had a Huck group outing! The afternoon began with a Titanic-themed escape room on a boat, where teamwork, timing, and tenacity were put to the test. Afterwards, we shifted from puzzles to play while we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in Kronenburger park, before closing the day with conversation and cuisine at Werf. It was a delightful blend of challenge, camaraderie, and community. Make sure to have a look at our X (Twitter) and Instagram profiles (@Huckgroup) to see the new monthly record we set at the escape room! ✨

Dr. Mart Bartelds

/in ,

On 2 July, 2025, Mart Bartelds successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Cell-free characterization of post-transcriptional regulators for the development of dynamic gene circuits” and became the 30th Dr. in the Huck group.

Congratulations, Mart!! We wish you all the best with your future career! 🥂🎉

Dr. Nikita M. Ivanov

/in ,

Our esteemed enzymologist, Nikita Ivanov has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Emergent phenomena in artificial enzymatic reaction networks” on Friday 2 May, 2025. Nikita became 29th Dr. in the Huck group!

Big congratulations, Nikita!! You deserved it! All the best to your future career! 🥳🎉

Dr. Peer van Duppen

/in ,

On 17th December, 2024, Peer van Duppen successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “The Formose Reaction Prebiotic Soup or Recipe for Life?”. Peer became #28 Dr. in the Huck group!

Big congratulations, Peer!! You deserved it! All the best to your future career! 🥳🎉

Secret Sock Santa

/in ,

Secret Sock Santa once again visited POC department! Our annual tradition means we became Secret Santa and gifted beautiful socks and created poems for each other! There were no limits in creativity and everyone was happy to receive warm words and guess who was their Secret Santa!

POC department outing

/in , ,

Last Friday we had Physical Organic Chemistry (POC) department outing! We started off in the morning with a Lab Safety and Organisational meeting, which was followed up by lunch and a graffiti workshop! Everyone was very enthusiastic as it was the first time holding a spray paint can for most of us. We created some amazing lab-life and nature inspired art that you can see on our X (Twitter) and Instagram profiles (@Huckgroup)! ✨

6th CORENET general Assembly

/in ,

On 30 October 2025 the 6th CORENET general Assembly took place. This time kindly hosted in Copenhagen by our partners from the University of Southern Denmark. It was a great opportunity to catch up with all our collaborators and see everyone’s progress towards creating chemical reservoir computers. After a day filled with science, we enjoyed a boat tour through the canals of Copenhagen, followed by wonderful dinner at Paté Paté.

Roeland Nolte Memorial Symposium

/in ,

On October 14-15, we attended a symposium dedicated to the memory of the late Prof. Roeland Nolte, organized by Wilhelm Huck, Hans Elemans, Bert Meijer, and Ben Feringa. Many professors, former PhD students, and family members gathered to share heartfelt memories, along with engaging research talks.

Photo credit: Nikita Ivanov