Postdoctoral Fellows
Guoting Zhang obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry from Fuzhou University, China in 2013. He then moved to Wuhan University to pursue his Ph.D. degree in Prof. Aiwen Lei’s lab, where he focused on the development of photoredox/cobalt-catalyzed oxidative coupling reactions. In 2018, he moved to Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Barry Trost working on the ruthenium-catalyzed coupling reactions development and the new chiral ligands design. In April 2021, Guoting joined the LCSA to study diazaphospholenes (DAP) catalyzed transformations. In his spare time, Guoting enjoys playing basketball and watching movies.
Lenin Verdhi was born and raised in the southern part of India. He earned his M.Sc. degree in organic chemistry from VIT University, Vellore, India. His Master’s thesis research was conducted on Nickel-catalyzed ethylene oligomerization reactions. In 2017, he moved to Israel for his Ph.D. with Prof. Alex M. Szpilman at Ariel University. His Ph.D. research was focused on the development of a novel class of chiral α-hydrogen substituted nitroxide radicals for enantioselective oxidations. After graduating in 2021, he remained in the same group as a postdoctoral fellow and investigated light-induced C-H oxygenation reactions. In November 2022, Lenin joined the LCSA as a postdoctoral researcher where he is currently working on the development of new CpCobalt catalysts. In his leisure time, he enjoys watching movies and listening to music.
Sripati Jana was born and raised in West Bengal, India. He studied chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and undertook his master’s thesis research in the group of Prof. Modhu S. Maji, working on Cobalt catalyzed C-H functionalization reaction. In 2018, he pursued his doctoral studies at the RWTH Aachen with Prof. Koenig. His PhD thesis focused on the development of new synthetic strategies for the formation of new C-C and C-X (X = heteroatom) bonds. After graduating in August 2022, he joined the LCSA at the EPFL, Switzerland for his post-doctoral research. Currently, he is investigating the development of new chiral carbene ligands and their applications in asymmetric catalysis. Outside the lab, Sripati likes travelling, listening to music and playing cricket.
Young (Sebastian) Ye was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia. He completed a BSc degree (2016) and a MSc degree (2018) at The University of Melbourne, under the research supervision of Prof. Mark Rizzacasa. He then moved to Canberra to pursue a PhD degree with Prof. Martin Banwell at The Australian National University, investigating the applications of enzymatically produced homochiral cis-dihydrocatechols in natural product synthesis. Shortly after graduating, Sebastian joined the LCSA in June 2023 to further develop planar chiral Rh and Ir complexes for asymmetric catalysis. His current hobbies include listening to music, playing chess and cooking.
PhD Students
Vitalii Smal received his Bachelor’s degree from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (Ukraine) in 2016. After graduation, he completed the Master’s program in Molecular Chemistry at Ecole Polytechnique (France). Vitalii joined the Cramer group in February 2018 firstly as a Master’s student and subsequently continued in the Ph.D. program. His current research is focused on the synthesis and applications of novel chiral phosphines. Outside the lab, Vitalii enjoys travelling and reading.
Yixuan Cao received his BSc from University of Science and Technology of China in 2017, and his M.S. degree in 2019 from the University of Rennes 1. During his Bachelor studies, he focused on transition metal-catalyzed organic fluorine chemistry with Prof. Xi-Sheng Wang. After graduation, he went to Rennes, France for his master’s and studied photoredox catalysis on the modification of acridinium salts with Dr. Jean-François Soulé and Prof. Pierre Dixneuf. He joined the Cramer group in October of 2019 and is now researching the applications of new chiral carbene ligands for asymmetric catalysis. In his spare time, Yixuan enjoys playing basketball and listening to music.
Adrien Madron du Vigné received both an engineering degree in organic chemistry and a master’s degree in biomolecules chemistry from the National Graduate School of Montpellier (ENSCM) in France. He started his Ph.D. in the Cramer group in November 2019, where he is currently working on the development and applications of new chiral carbene ligands for asymmetric catalysis. In his spare time, he enjoys hanging out and listening to music.
Arthur Despois received both an engineering degree in organic chemistry and a master’s degree in biomolecules from the National Graduate School of Montpellier (ENSCM), France. After an internship at Yale University, CT, working on PROTAC technology under the supervision of Prof. Craig M. Crews he took a gap year working in Medicinal Chemistry at Janssen Pharmaceutica, Belgium. He then continued his master’s courses where he worked on radical chlorodifluoromethylation at UCB Pharma, Belgium, before joining the Cramer group in November 2020 as a PhD student where he currently works on Iridium-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of heteroarenes.
Bram Van Den Bossche is from the Flemish town of Oosterzele, Belgium, and graduated as a Bioscience Engineer from Ghent University in July 2020. The subject of his Master’s thesis concerned the multi-step synthesis of novel bicyclic beta-lactams, which he carried out at the SynBioC group, under the supervision of Prof. Matthias D’hooghe. During his studies, Bram spent a semester abroad in Trondheim (Norway) within the context of an Erasmus exchange at NTNU. In December 2020, he commenced his Ph.D. at the Cramer group, where he works on C-H activation by means of asymmetric cobalt catalysis. When not in the lab, Bram enjoys above all spending time with friends, whether it be adventurous hikes, atmospheric parties, or simply a pleasant conversation over a glass of red wine.
Seongmin Jeon is from Seoul, Korea and received her Bachelor’s degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in August 2021. After an internship in Prof. Sunkyu Han’s group working on total synthesis of Securinega alkaloids and an internship in Samsung Electro-Mechanics, she spent a year in Lausanne as an exchange student at EPFL. During her exchange year, she investigated the annulation of aminocyclopropane and thiophenol under the supervision of Prof. Jerome Waser. Back in Korea, she focused on direct 19F NMR analysis of asymmetric fluorination reactions for her Bachelor’s thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Hyunwoo Kim. In September 2021, Seongmin returned to Lausanne and joined the LCSA. While not in lab, Seongmin likes to hike, swim, sing, draw and dream about her future cat (and to find a perfect name for it).
Anastasiia Vorobei received her Bachelor’s diploma in Organic Chemistry in Kyiv (Ukraine). During her Master’s studies at the Université Grenoble Alpes, she conducted an internship at LCSA working on the application of new chiral phosphines. From January to July 2022 she worked in the group of Pawel Dydio at the University of Strasbourg (France) where she investigated Ruthenium dual-catalytic systems. In August 2022, Anastasiia joined the LCSA to study diazaphospholenes catalyzed transformations. During her free time, she enjoys travelling and baking.
Jason Denizot received both an engineering degree in organic chemistry and a master’s degree in biomolecules from the National Graduate School of Montpellier (ENSCM), France. After his Master’s thesis at Selvita, in Kraków, he took a gap year working in Medicinal Chemistry at Roche, in Basel, where his research was focused on the synthesis of asymmetric ureas and zwitterionic active ingredients. In October 2022, he joined the LCSA as a PhD student where he is currently working on the development and applications of planar-only chiral cyclopentadienyl ligands for asymmetric catalysis. In his spare time, he enjoys watching movies and visiting museums or new places.
Wilfrido E. Almaraz Ortiz was born in Oaxaca, Mexico. He obtained his B. Sc. in Chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Afterwards, he earned his M. Sc. degree from the Institute of Chemistry, UNAM in Prof. Rubén O. Torres-Ochoa’s Lab working on the copper-catalyzed synthesis of heterocycles from O-acyloximes. In February 2023, he joined the LCSA as a PhD student. During his spare time, Wilfrido likes cycling or playing long chess games.
Marvin Muranko is originally from Schwelm, Germany. He graduated with a B.Sc. degree in chemistry from Heidelberg University (Germany) in 2020, after spending one year at the University of Bristol (UK) as an exchange student. He then worked in the process chemistry division of Bayer in Wuppertal (Germany) and completed a research traineeship at Syngenta in Stein (Switzerland), where he worked on the synthesis of functionalised cyclopropanes. In 2021, he started his master’s studies at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), where he researched novel applications of tripeptide organocatalysts in the Wennemers group. For his master’s thesis project, he joined the Hartwig group at the University of California, Berkeley (USA) to work on N-heterocyclic carbenes for the Ni-catalysed anti-Markovnikov hydroarylation of unactivated alkenes and alkynes. He graduated with an M.Sc. degree in chemistry in 2023 and subsequently joined LCSA, where he explores the application of chiral N-heterocyclic carbenes in asymmetric organocatalysis. In his spare time, he enjoys road cycling and hiking.
Patrick Langrzyk obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) in Munich, Germany. Throughout his Master’s studies at LMU, he specialized in both Organic and Computational Chemistry. During this period, he conducted research in the group of Paul Knochel, exploring a lactamization reaction achieved through the deprotonation of formamides. Subsequently, he investigated the redox properties of modified DNA bases in the research group led by Hendrik Zipse. After working as a research assistant in a collaborative project between LMU and Arxada AG (Visp, CH) on the electrochemical fluorination of acetone in anhydrous HF, Patrick joined the LCSA in March 2023. There, he investigated a Cp*Ir(III)-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of pyridines for his Master’s thesis. In November 2023, Patrick rejoined the group as a PhD student, continuing his research on the same topic.
Administrative Assistant
Fabienne Rudin is the administrative assistant of the laboratory of Professor Nicolai Cramer. She has been working in the lab LCSA since 2012. She joined the EPFL in 2009 after several jobs in marketing. In her spare time, Fabienne likes to play tennis and enjoys skiing in Winter. A nice wine and a good meal also contribute to her happiness!