News

|25 April 2023|

Annemarie Maan wins the first prize at DPD

Annemarie bagged the first place with her plenary lecture at the 20th Dutch
Polymer Days conference. She presented her research on antifouling coatings
captivating the minds of several polymer scientists present.

Congrats Annemarie!


|23 February 2023|

Marleen Kamperman wins the Vici grant!

Congratulations to Marleen who has been awarded the Vici grant of €1.5 million. This NWO grant is awarded to senior researchers for further innovative developments in their research area. More information can be found here.


|23 January 2023|

Abinaya completes RPK-B with a bang!

Abinaya passed the RPK-B module (Polymer Physics) with flying colors scoring a whopping 9.0!

The RPK-B course covers the fundamentals of polymer physics and their applications in diverse fields of soft matter.


|7 December 2022|

PhD Defense of Jianwu Sun

Jianwu Sun successfully defended his thesis titled ‘Green processing of polyelectrolyte complex fibers‘ earning his doctoral degree from the Kamperman lab.

Hearty congratulations Dr. Sun! We wish you great success for your future endeavours.


|7 November 2022|

PhD Defense of Mohammad Khoonkari

Mohammad Khoonkari successfully defended his thesis titled ‘Physics of cancer: mechanotransduction in the adaptive response of glioblastoma cells to matrix stiffness‘ becoming the first PhD candidate to earn his doctoral degree from the Kamperman lab.

Congratulations Dr. Khoonkari! We wish you all the best for your future endeavours.


|18 October 2022|

Gosia wins the ‘Laureate of Polityka’ award

Gosia was awarded the prestigious Laureate of Polityka prize in recognition of her contributions to the development of science and research in Poland. Check out her research in our group with 3D bioprinting!

Many congratulations on your achievement, Gosia!


|1 July 2022|

Guillermo gets appointed as Assistant Professor in Strasbourg

Our very own post doc, Guillermo Monreal Santiago, will soon be starting as an Assistant Professor in Systems Chemistry in the University of Strasbourg from September. He will be working on peptide reaction networks, liquid-liquid phase separation and self-assembly.

Congratulations Guille! We will miss you but we are sure that you will make us proud at France. Looking forward to some exciting collaborations!


|27 June 2022|

Annemarie Maan’s review secures its spot in the top 10 most downloaded articles

The review paper by Annemarie, Anton, and Marleen, together with Wiebe de Vos, published in Advanced Functional Materials titled ‘Recent Developments and Practical Feasibility of Polymer-Based Antifouling Coatings’ made it to the top 10 of most downloaded articles. Check it out here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202000936

Congratulations to all the authors for this achievement!



|14 June 2022|

Abinaya Arunachalam wins the ‘Best Oral Talk’ prize in Vlieland 2022!

The Vlieland Conference is a biennial event organised by the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials with two days filled with talks, posters and some entertainment as well.

Talking about the effects of chemical pesticides, Abinaya gave an attention-grabbing presentation emphasizing the necessity to switch to more environmentally-friendly pest management techniques. Check out our research section on Complex Coacervates to know how we came up with a solution to this problem.

Congratulations Abinaya!


|18 May 2022|

Marleen’s interview in Noorderlab

Marleen was featured in the last episode of Noorderlab. Tune in to Spotify, Apple podcasts, or Google podcasts to listen to her interview with Amanda Brouwer and learn about biological and bio-inspired materials!


|10 May 2022|

New publications!

Two new papers have been published by Mohammad Khoonkari together with researchers from the University Medical Center Groningen. One is a review in MDPI Pharmaceutics, about the effects of extracellular matrix alterations and mechanical stress on Glioblastoma aggressiveness, and another one in MDPI International Journal of Molecular Sciences, about the effects of a variable stiff extracellular matrix on the morphology and malignant properties of Glioblastoma stem cells. Follow the links or check our publications page to read more about them.

Congratulations to Mohammad!


|3 May 2022|

Gosia receives ‘Outstanding Reviewer Award’

Gosia was recognized as an ‘Outstanding Reviewer‘ for Biofabrication in 2021 by IOP Publishing.

Congratulations Gosia!


|1 April 2022|

Launch of the Noorderlab podcast

Noorderlab, “the podcast for the curious Northeners” was just launched in Spotify, Apple and Google podcasts. A new episode of the podcast will be released every few weeks, discussing the research of a scientist from the faculty (in Dutch). Stay tuned!


|2 March 2022|

New video of Annemarie in Eye-Openers!

Annemarie was featured in the platform Eye-Openers, where she talks about her research in antifouling coatings. Check it out in the link above or in our outreach section!



|10 February 2022|

Annemarie interviewed in Omroep Houten for the international day of Women and Girls in Science

Annemarie was interviewed in the radio station Omroep Houten with the occasion of the international day of Women and Girls in Science (11th of February). Listen to her interview here or read about it in her blog, and check our outreach section for more interviews and videos.


|5 January 2022|

Happy New Year with new publications!

We start the academic year with very good news! Two papers from the group got recently published: One in ACS Macro Letters, about using C3Ms to create responsive Pickering emulsions, and another one in ACS Polymers Au, about orthogonal deprotection strategies for the synthesis of polysulfonates. Follow the links or check our publications page to read more about them.

Congratulations to both Anton and Julien!


|5 January 2022|

Marleen is a member of HTRIC

HTRIC (Health Technology Research and Innovation Cluster) is a new research cluster bringing together academic research, technology, and clinical practices for healthcare applications. Marleen has joined this cluster as a researcher and frontwoman of the research side. We’re sure it will bring exciting projects and collaborations!


|5 January 2022|


Shutterstock/Tomasz Klejdysz

The research project “Mimicking natural plant defenses” is a collaboration between our group and other universities from The Netherlands. Recently, the project was featured in the NWO website with an interview to Thomas Kodger from the university of Wageningen. Follow the link to learn more about our approach to protect crops without relying on pesticides.


|12 November 2021|

Annemarie is part of the board of Jong KNCV

Annemarie is now part of the board of Jong KNCV, an organization part of the KNCV aimed at young researchers, specially under the age of 35. Take a look at their website to find out about the activities they organize and how you can be involved with them!


|14 October 2021|

Annemarie Maan wins the spotlight prize in Avond van de Chemie!

Ektor Tsolodimos – Epsilon Studios

The Avond van de Chemie is a yearly event organised by the KNCV with talks, entertainment, and a prize gala in which PhD students compete by pitching their research… in only three minutes, and without any slides or backup material!

With her wits and the help of her houseplant, Annemarie rose to the challenge in this year’s edition, and finally won the coveted Spotlight prize. Check her blog to read about her experience, and our Outreach section for more of her videos.

Congratulations Annemarie!


|14 September 2021|

Second edition of the comic book/learning package “De scarabee en de geheimzinnige ziekte”

Thanks to Samenweten (KNAW), members of our group are now involved in developing the second edition of the comic book and learning package “De scarabee en de geheimzinnige ziekte”, which aims to get Dutch children in contact with the scientific process. This edition will include additional material, such as animations or videos.


|06 September 2021|

Beginning of the academic year, wadlopen

Today is the beginning of the new academic year, and we have new master students starting their projects with us. Check the members page to see all the new faces!

To welcome everyone, and as a covid-safe group activity, we went to Pieterburen to do the typically dutch wadlopen (mudwalking). Good chance for a new group photo!


|28 January 2021|

New outreach video by Annemarie

Annemarie continues with her outreach in her Faces of science blog, this time with a vlog where she explains (and demonstrates) popular chemistry experiments that you can do at home. Find her video in our outreach section.


|7 January 2021|


Marleen participated on the website eye-openers.nl , in which researchers explain their projects in the short space of one-minute. Find her video in their website or in our outreach section.


|10 December 2020|

New group picture!

With the group growing more and more, we wanted to start 2021 with a new website design and a new group picture. Even if we cannot be all together, at least we can be in space! Check our members page to be updated on all the new incorporations.


|09 September 2020|

Gosia wins a NWO XS grant

Gosia was awarded a NWO XS grant of 50.000 €, for her project  ‘3D Printed Human Trabecular Meshwork’. In this project, she will use her expertise in 3D bioprinting to build synthetic mimics of the Human Trabecular Meshwork, a structure involved in Glaucoma. These mimics could be used to test new drugs and treatments or as an injectable replacement for damaged ones. Congratulations Gosia!

https://www.rug.nl/fse/news/nwo-xs-grant-for-dr-gosia-wlodarczyk-biegun


|26 August 2020|

New paper from Gosia in Bioprinting

A new paper from Gosia was published in the journal Bioprinting, about the 3D printing of alginate-based scaffolds and a new protocol to image them using SEM. Check it out here! https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bprint.2020.e00098


|29 June 2020|

New article in Langmuir

A new article with contributions from the group, together with researchers from Wageningen, was published about enzyme encapsulation in coacervate core micelles (C3Ms). Read more about it in Langmuir (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.0c01073)


|02 June 2020|

Review from the group in Advanced Functional Materials

Annemarie, Anton, and Marleen, together with Wiebe de Vos, published a review in Advanced Functional Materials about the state of the art of polymer-based antifouling coatings.(https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/adfm.202000936)

Congratulations to all the authors! Looking forward to adding more of our research to this exciting field


|12 March 2020|

Annemarie elected as new ‘Face of Science’

One of our PhD students, Annemarie Maan, has been elected to join the ‘Faces of Science’, as was announced officially yesterday on the KNAW website. Faces of Science is a collaboration between NEMO Kennislink and the KNAW / De Jonge Akademie. As a Face of Science, Annemarie will share her experiences as a (polymer) chemistry PhD student. To do this, she will write a blog and/or film a vlog each month, in which she will tell about her adventures in the lab. All Faces of Science have their own page on the website. This way, high school students can be informed about the ins and outs of doing research, and hopefully be motivated to persue a career in science. The Faces of Science will not only go to high schools to talk about their research in person, but are also invited to talk at science festivals and other public events.

The news has also been shared on the RUG website.


|14 January 2020|

Inauguration Marleen Kamperman

Our professor, Marleen Kamperman started last year working at the University of Groningen as full professor. During the official ceremony, she gave an inaugural lecture. The lecture was called “De kunst van het afkijken”. The ceremony was very beautiful and the room was completely filled with friends, family and colleagues. To continue the celebration, our polymer chemistry department was invited to a delicious dinner in Huize Maas.


|10 December 2019|

Marleen Kamperman wins ERC Grant

Congratulations to our Professor, Marleen Kamperman, who has been awarded with a personal grant of €2 million. This grant, supported by ERC, is awarded to outstanding scientists, with the aim of stimulating ground-breaking research in Europe. More information can be found here.


|20 November 2019|

Front Cover

Congratulations to Anton Hofman, whose cover has been accepted as the front cover of the 45th Issue of the Polymer Chemistry Journal. The cover can be found here.


|30 September 2019|

New Publication

Congratulations to Anton Hofman, who published a new article in the Polymer Chemistry Journal. The article is titled A mild and quantitative route towards well-defined strong anionic/hydrophobic diblock copolymers: synthesis and aqueous self-assembly (DOI: 10.1039/C9PY01227C ).


|20 August 2019|

The University of Noorderzon

Every summer, the Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival returns to Groningen, including ‘Northern Lights: The University of Groningen’. This year, Young Academy Groningen (YAG) invited us, the Kamperman group, to introduce kids to chemistry. Via the concept ‘learn by doing’, the young scientists could try out all kinds of experiments in our Magical Molecules booth. They helped us solve the mystery on how to easily separate salt from pepper, made beautiful artworks in milk and got their hands dirty by playing with cornstarch in water. Every 20 minutes, a colourful demonstration showed the rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water, better known as foamy elephant toothpaste.

After being scientist for a day, the kids received a special University of Groningen certificate. In total, +/- 1100 kids and adults visited the University of Noorderzon this year.


|04 April 2019|

Annemarie Maan wins Strating Award

One of our own PhD students, Annemarie Maan, has won the Strating Award for best-written colloquium of 2018. Congratulations!

RuG News – Annemarie Maan wins the strating award (backer foundation)


|11 February 2019|

Research Minute YAG – Marleen Kamperman

Members of the Young Academy Groningen share their passion for research in a ‘Research Minute’, this time featuring Marleen Kamperman, Professor Polymer Sciences, ZIAM, Young Academy Groningen member 2018.