Michael started his chemistry career by undertaking a PhD in organic chemistry at the University of York, subsequently entering into the pharmaceutical industry working in organic synthesis at both CRO and start-up companies. Michael joined Lhasa Limited in 2015 as part of the Mirabilis project, aiding the research and curation of knowledge relevant to understanding the potential for purging of mutagenic impurities from drug substance syntheses. In 2017, Michael took over leadership of the scientific development of Mirabilis, working closely with leading members of the purge calculation community to develop both Mirabilis and the broader purge concept. More recently, Michael has been involved with a number of projects focussing on the ongoing nitrosamine challenges facing the pharma industry. As part of this work Michael has been working with academic institutions and industry bodies, such as the IQ consortium, to find collaborative approaches to both understanding and subsequently addressing nitrosamine issues related to drug quality.

Dr. Michael Dieckmann obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 2013 at the University of Heidelberg, Germany on natural product Total Synthesis. After postdoctoral studies at EPFL, Switzerland on homogeneous catalysis, he joined Syngenta in 2016 where he has worked at Syngenta research-, development- and production-sites on early research projects to large-scale production of agrochemicals. Since 2021 he holds a position as process chemistry specialist at Syngenta Münchwilen in the development of new agrochemicals. His research activities focus on novel-type technologies such as photo- and electrochemistry and their large-scale implementation.

Anne Kaaden studied business chemistry at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel. Main focus was on innovation management and bio chemistry. She started her career in the field of flow chemistry 2012 at the company Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik as a business manager. Areas of responsibility where market development and building of business in US, Russia and parts of the EU. Since 2016 Anne additionally took over the management of marketing. Now as the head of marketing Anne is promoting the new technology platform of micro- and millireactors on fairs and conferences worldwide.

1968:               Born in Rothenburg, Germany

1993:               Diploma degree in chemistry at university Würzburg

1996:               Dissertation at university Würzburg at Prof. Bringmann incl. research exchange to US (National Cancer Institute, Maryland)
Total Syntheses of anti-HIV active Michellamines and related analogs
Summa cum laude as well as awarded by the “curatorship of Franconian memorial foundation” due to TOP-dissertation of whole university.
Scholarship by “Fonds of chemical industry”.

1996:               Start industrial career at BASF
Research Scientist within Crop Protection Research

1999-2001:       Assistant Plant Manager (Multi-Purpose Plant Fine Chemicals)

2001-2003:       Plant Manager (Multi Purpose Plant Plant Fine Chemicals)

2003-2006:       Technology Manager
Technological responsibility for several active ingredients at different production locations with respect to process & synthesis optimization, yield increase, waste reduction, reduction of Cost of Goods, Capacity increase

2006-2011:       Head of Global Responsible Care within Global Operations
Ensurance of safe operations as well as quality for active ingredients as well as formulated products

2012-today:     Leading Chemical- and Process Development within Crop Protection Research
Development of new production processes for new active ingredients with focus on safe, robust and sustainable processes by minimum costs

2016:               Awarded as “Senior Executive Expert Process Development” within BASF
Official announcement within BASF Group: “Over the past 20 years, Roland has held positions in R&D, technology and manufacturing, supporting several key projects during development and production. During his tenure with BASF, Roland has gained broad expertise in process development and operations, and he is recognized as an expert within BASF, in the industry and in academia”

2014-2017:       Teaching assignment at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Teaching and examining of bachelor students. Subject on Technical Chemistry with focus on Process Development within study course “Applied organic chemistry”

2017-2021:       Lecturer at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Reading “Industrial process technology with focus chemical process development”

2022:               Lecture as Guest Instructor at the IIT Bombay within “Techno-commercial Aspects within Fine Chemicals”

Patents / Publications (only industrial career, without activities at university)

Holding more than 250 patents or applications respectively globally.
Prof. Kappe, Roland Götz – Org. Process Res. Dev. 2017, 21, 1, 125
Prof. Hartwig, Roland Götz – Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 399
Prof. Reisman, Roland Götz, JACS 2021, assigned to editors
Prof. Hashmi, Roland Götz, Green Chemistry 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D1GC02602J

Invitation to expert conferences and holding lectures at universities

2020 Shanghai (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, CAS, and Shanghai Tech University), The XXIII International Conference on Organic Synthesis (23-ICOS), postponed to 2022 due to Covit

2017 University of Münster – FoChin (“Crop Protection Research & Process Development”)

2016 Prague (“Challenges and Solutions within Process Development of a Large Scale New Fungicide”)

2015 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (“Industrial Process Development at BASF Crop Protection“)

2015 Pune (“Process Development within Crop Protection”)

2015 Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry („Crop Protection Research at BASF with focus on Process Development“)

2014 Brussels (“Process Development of Active Ingredients for Crop Protection“)

Starting her research in the area of continuous flow synthesis in 2000, Charlotte obtained her PhD in 2003 entitled ‘Microreactors in organic synthesis’. This was followed by 5 years of postdoctoral research into the rapidly developing field of continuous flow synthesis, specifically in the area of heterogeneous catalysis for small molecule synthesis.
In 2008, Charlotte joined Chemtrix BV as a Senior Chemist where she worked on the commercialisation of lab-scale micro reactor apparatus. In 2010 she was promoted to Chief Technology Officer & in 2013 to CEO, where she continues to research & develop continuous flow systems & solutions for industrial partners. More recent developments at Chemtrix BV have focussed on industrial flow reactor implementation for flexible tonne-scale production – with several projects concerned with strategic relocation of manufacturing assets.

Martin Schürmann is Principal Scientist for Biocatalysis at InnoSyn BV in Geleen, The Netherlands. InnoSyn is a young SME that originated from a management buy-out of the DSM chemical R&D department Innovative Synthesis in 2017. Before he held the position of Principal Scientist Biocatalysis at DSM as well as various other R&D positions after joining DSM in 2002.

Martin Schürmann studied Biology at Ruhr-University Bochum and performed his PhD thesis and a short Post-Doc at the Institute of Biotechnology at the Research Center Jülich in Germany, obtaining his PhD from Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf in 2001.

Martin Schürmann is co-author of more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles, book chapters and international patents or patent applications. From 2015-2017 he was coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 Innovation action ROBOX, a project to develop novel biooxidation enzymes and demonstrate their application on pilot plant scale. Next to being member of the Scientific Board of ESAB (European Society for Applied Biocatalysis), Martin is since 2021 also co-chair of the joint working group Biotransformations of DECHEMA and the German Association for General and Applied Microbiology (VAAM). Since 2021 he is a member of the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharma Roundtable Biocatalysis team.

His main interests are applied biocatalysis, microbial production of chemicals and green chemistry (chemical route scouting for more sustainable production processes), especially bridging the gap between academic and industrially applied biocatalysis.

Professional Experience

Since May 2017 Principal Scientist Biocatalysis at InnoSyn B.V. in Geleen (The Netherlands)

2016-2017            Principal Scientist Biocatalysis at DSM Chemical Technology R&D in Geleen (NL)

2013-2015            Senior Scientist Biocatalysis at DSM Chemical Technology R&D in Geleen (NL)

2006-2013            Scientist Biocatalysis at DSM Pharmaceutical Products in Geleen (NL)

2004-2005            Associate Scientist at DSM Pharmaceutical Products in Geleen (NL)

2002-2004            Marie-Curie Industrial Host Fellowship (Post-Doc) at DSM Pharmaceutical Products in Geleen (NL):  Optimisation and Industrial Application of Aldolases

Education

2001-2002          Post-Doc Institute of Biotechnology I, Research Center Jülich, metabolic pathway engineering of aromatics in Escherichia coli

1998-2001            PhD (magna cum laude) on C-C bond forming enzymes, Institute of Biotechnology I, Research Center Jülich (supervisors: Prof. G.A. Sprenger & Prof. H. Sahm)

1992-1998            Biology studies with Diplom graduation at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, thesis with Prof. K.-E. Jaeger: Microbiology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology

Christine Fannes studied chemistry at the university of Leuven. She joined the Organic Synthesis lab from Professor Hoornaert for her doctoral thesis (PhD).

She started her professional career at BASF Antwerp where she worked in the central analytical lab and was quality responsible for the department Intermediates.

After about 5 years, she moved to a smaller company Govin-Meyvis where she handled both inside and outside sales for parallel-synthesis equipment.

However, she missed the lab work and when about 4 years later an invitation came for a vacancy in the safety testing lab, she did not have to think long. She started as a scientist in the Process Safety Center at Janssen Pharmaceutica in April 2001 and in the meantime has more than 20 years of experience. At the Process Safety Center, she is responsible for risk analyses and safety testing at the introduction of new chemical processes in the plants. Safety tests are mainly focused on thermal stability, flammability, dust explosion characterization and Reaction Calorimetry.

Dr. Jörg Gries did is undergraduate studies in chemistry at the RWTH Aachen in Germany and the University of York in the UK. He continued his education at the RWTH Aachen on the topics of asymmetric synthesis and organocatalysis and received his Ph.D. in 2005 under supervision of Prof. Dieter Enders. Later in 2005 he joined the Chemical Development Department of the Schering AG in Berlin as a Postdoc and soon became head of a laboratory for automated reaction and process screening, high throughput experimentation and salt screening. After the merger of the Schering AG and the Bayer Healthcare AG, he moved to the Bayer site in Wuppertal in 2008, where he consolidated all parallel reaction screening activities for pharmaceutical process development in a newly formed group.

Since 2009 he has been the leading chemist for multiple development projects (small molecule and antibody-drug conjugate), and in addition was heading the MedChem kilo lab from 2011 to 2013.

During his carrier he gathered experience from early route scouting, scale-up and industrialization, till shaping supply and filing strategies for market authorization of new APIs. In recent years his focus was on synthesis optimization and industrialization for late-stage development projects internally at Bayer and together with international partners.

Earlier this year he became Scientific Lead with focus on process chemistry and sustainability within Chemical API Development at Bayer AG Wuppertal.

Matthew Tatton completed his DPhil at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Professor Timothy Donohoe. His research focused on new methods for aromatic molecule synthesis. He then spent a two-year post doc at Syngenta’s research laboratories in Jealott’s Hill where he carried out research into novel herbicides. In 2018 he joined AstraZeneca and currently works as an Associate Principal Scientist at the Macclesfield Campus, UK in the early chemical development department investigating new routes to clinical drug candidates.

After receiving his BSc from the University of Applied Sciences in Emmen (NL), Michel Leeman was employed at Syncom. After a couple of years working at Syncom he started his PhD under the supervision of Professor Kellogg. In 2009 he received his PhD from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL) for his research on the resolution of racemates via different crystallization techniques. Nowadays, he is a project leader but is still involved with many resolution projects at Symeres.

Dr. Gabriele Menges-Flanagan has more than 15 years of experience in industrial applications of flow chemistry. She is a Research Fellow at the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM in Mainz and a member of the OPRD Editorial Advisory Board. She earned her Diploma in chemistry from the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and, after completing her PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, returned to Germany to join Fraunhofer IMM (then the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz) in 2005. Her interests include the conversion of batch into continuous processes and the synthesis of reactive intermediates on varied throughput scales.

Simon Wagschal earned his Ph.D. in 2010 from École Polytechnique, Paris, France, under the supervision of Prof. El Kaïm and Prof. Grimaud.

He then delved in organometallic chemistry during his postdoctoral stay with the Kündig group in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2013, he joined Janssen’s Chemical Process R&D group and have been involved in a dozen late-stage projects, developing and introducing new processes in the pilot and production plants.

He received the Vice Presidents’ Research Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement in 2020.

Simon recently joined the Janssen External R&D team, focusing on compounds in early development and delivering GxP batches at CRO partners.

Dr. Bodo Betzemeier received his undergraduate education at the Universities of Dusseldorf Manchester and Marburg. Afterwards he moved to the Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich where he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2000 under the supervision of Prof. Paul Knochel.  After obtaining his Ph.D. degree, Dr. Betzemeier held a postdoctoral research position in Prof. Scott D. Rychnovsky’s group at University of California in Irvine from 2000 to 2001.  Subsequently, he joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at Boehringer Ingelheim in Vienna for seven years and then moved to Boehringer Ingelheim in Biberach, Germany, where he is currently a Principal Scientist in the Department of Chemical Development, leading a multi-disciplinary team responsible for the development and implementation of efficient processes for the synthesis of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients).  Dr. Betzemeier’s research areas include the synthesis of chiral biologically active compounds and development of efficient methodologies for heterocycle synthesis on gram to 100 kg scale.  He is co-author of >20 research papers and patents.

Isabelle is currently global product manager at Thar Process for the supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) technology platform. She is also Thar’s sales manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Thar Process is a US based company that specializes in large scale CO₂ based extraction and purification system manufacturing as well as R&D and toll processing.

Next to working for Thar Process, Isabelle is also the founder of Chromisa Scientific, a consultancy company based in Belgium. She supports academia as well as industry with demanding extraction, chromatography, purification and project management challenges, offering customization, training and support.

Isabelle holds a PhD in analytical chemistry, and has been working with analytical and CO₂ technologies since more than 15 years across many industries including pharma. She has been awarded numerous times in the Powerlists of the magazine The Analytical Scientist eg as one of the most influential female scientists in the world in 2016. Isabelle is still closely connected to the scientific community, publishing and reviewing articles on a regular basis, and she is often invited as a speaker at scientific conferences.

Andrew Teasdale PhD has 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry as an analytical chemist and within quality assurance and regulatory roles. In his current role he chairs AstraZeneca’s Impurity Advisory Group. Dr Teasdale has published a number of papers relating to mutagenic impurities, N Nitrosamines, extractables and leachables,  and other impurity related matters.  He is currently the chair of the  Extractables and Leachables safety Information exchange (ELSIE) and also led a number of industry expert groups; these include both safety and quality groups within Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), Product Quality Research Institute (PQRI) .  Andrew has also represented EFPIA in ICH Q3C, Q3D and Q3E Expert working groups. He has also advanced a number of key scientific advancements in the control of impurities as the inventor of the purge factor concept and the instigator of the development of Elemental Impurities database for excipients.