Mahesh Dattatraya Pol
Mahesh Pol received his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry(2015) from Shivaji University Kolhapur and M.Sc. degree in Analytical Chemistry (2017) from the Department of Chemistry, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune. After completion of his Master’s, he joined the Dr. Santosh B. Mhaske’s group at the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, where he worked on the development of new synthetic methodologies for naturally occurring biologically active molecules. In September 2021, he joined the Dr. Pappas research group as a PhD student and his current research work focuses on Spontaneous formation and hydrolysis of peptide assemblies.
Arti Sharma
Arti Sharma received her M.Sc. degree in Organic Chemistry (2016) from the Department of Chemistry, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India. Then she joined Dr. Sushil Kumar Maurya’s research group as DST-INSPIRE research fellow in 2017 at the CSIR-Institute of Himalayan bioresource and technology, Palampur, and worked on the total synthesis of bioactive natural products and their analogues. In September 2022, she joined the Dr. Pappas research group as a PhD student, and her current research work focuses on phosphate-driven systems chemistry.
Kun Dai
Kun Dai received his M.Sc. degree from Shaanxi Normal University, China (2017), where he worked on the catalytic conversion of Freon molecules. Later in 2018, he started his doctoral studies entitled ‘Design rules for the chemically fueled self-assembly and disassembly of peptides’ supervised by Prof. Dr. Job Boekhoven at Technische Universität München. Since October 2021, he joined the Pappas Research Group as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on the development of biologically adaptive and interactive peptides.
Thejus Pramod
Thejus Pramod received his BS-MS degree in chemistry (2022) from Indian institute of science education and research Thiruvananthapuram (IISER TVM). He did his master thesis project with Dr. Kana M. Sureshan (IISER TVM) on topochemical reactions of peptide derived monomers. In March 2023 he joined Dr. Pappas research group as a PhD student and his current research work focuses on construction of active self-assembling materials.
Lenard Saile
Lenard studied chemistry in the binational Bachelor Regio Chimica between the Albert‑Ludwigs‑University of Freiburg and the University of Haute‑Alsace (Mulhouse) and obtained his Licence de chimie and B.Sc. in 2020 for his work on the synthesis of homoallenylalcohols in the group of Prof. Breit. As part of his Master Chemistry studies at the University of Freiburg, Lenard joined the group of Dr. Pappas at the excellence cluster livMatS in 2022, where he obtained his M.Sc. in chemistry in 2023 working on the phase behavior of activated amino acids in aqueous oligomerization. Since January 2024, Lenard is a PhD student exploring the potential of structured fuels in phosphate driven peptide reaction cycles.
Debjyoti Bhattacharjee
Debjyoti Bhattacharjee received his BS-MS degree in chemistry (2024) from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata. He pursued his MS Thesis under the supervision of Dr. Biplab Maji (IISER Kolkata) on mechanochemical organic synthesis. In September 2024 he joined the Pappas research group as a PhD student and his current research work focuses on abiotic phosphate fuels capable of undergoing oligomerization and assembly.
Alumni
Souraj Mandal
Souraj Mandal completed his M.Sc. in Sustainable Materials Polymer Sciences within a joint program from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany and Strasbourg University, France. He completed his master thesis and worked as a research assistant in Institut für Mikrosystemtechnik at the University of Freiburg for a couple of years. Souraj joined as a short-time research fellow in the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) in July 2021.
Mohammad Rafsun Zaman obtained his B.Sc. in chemistry from Khulna University, Bangladesh, in 2019. There, he worked on the biosynthesis of nanoparticles and on the characterization of wood vinegar. Later in 2019, he started his Master's in Sustainable Materials - Polymer Science in a binational master’s program between the University of Strasbourg, France and the University of Freiburg, Germany. He joined Pappas Research Group in July 2021 and is currently working on chemically activated peptide libraries.
Mohammad Rafsun
Paul Adamski
Paul studied chemistry at the University of Würzburg where he obtained his B.Sc. in 2015, working on light driven water splitting in the group of Prof. Würthner. After an intermediate stay in the group of Prof. Bunz at the University of Heidelberg, Paul obtianed his M.Sc. degree from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg in 2018, where he investigated the self-sorting and transformation of dynamic covalent cage compounds. In 2018 he joined the group of Prof. Sijbren Otto at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen to pursue his PhD in the field of Systems Chemistry. In April 2023, Paul joined the Pappas Research Group as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on the development of novel building blocks for peptide-based molecular networks.