Dr. Rienk Eelkema
Associate Professor
Rienk's research focuses on interactive organic and polymer materials in aqueous and biological environments. Main activities are in three areas: interactive soft materials using fuel-driven chemical reaction networks, biomolecule labelling, and responsive polymers in biomedical materials. His lab pioneered the use of catalysis to control the kinetics of formation of molecular gels, and the use of chemical fuels to make synthetic active polymers, akin to GTP-driven microtubule polymerization (collaboration with prof. Jan van Esch). His lab is currently focused on the development of signal responsive chemical reaction networks and their incorporation in polymer materials, the application of responsive polymer materials in biomedicine and radiotherapy (collaboration with prof. Antonia Denkova) and protein labeling for sequencing (collaboration with Cees Dekker Lab and Chirlmin Joo Lab).
Academic background
Rienk was born in 1978 near Utrecht, the Netherlands. He completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of Groningen in 2001, majoring in organic chemistry (supervisor Prof. Ben L. Feringa). He then obtained his PhD in Chemistry in the same group, studying supramolecular chemistry, stereochemistry and nano- and microscale motion in liquid crystalline systems. After completing postdoctoral work at the University of Oxford with Prof. Harry L. Anderson FRS in the field of nanoscale insulation of molecular wires, he joined the TU Delft Faculty in 2008 and obtained tenure in 2013. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2017.
- +31 (0)15 27 81035
- R.Eelkema@tudelft.nl
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Building 58, D2.340
Van der Maasweg 9
2629 HZ Delft
The NetherlandsManagement Assistant
Veby Agus
+31 (0)15 27 82682 (phone)
+31 (0)15 27 84289 (fax)
V.A.Agus@tudelft.nl
Keywords
Organic Chemistry
Soft Materials
Responsive Polymer Materials
Out-of-equilibrium Materials
Soft Materials for Biomedical Applications
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- Molecular Engineering of Soft Materials in Health Care (MSc CH3382)
- Principles of Chemistry & Thermodynamics (BSc AESB1120-15)
- Practicum Basisvaardigheden (PBV) (BSc MST 4051PRBVA)
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2017 - present Associate professor
2008 - 2017 Assistant professor (tenured 2013), Delft University of Technology
2006 - 2008 Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Oxford
2001 - 2006 Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Groningen (cum laude, top 5%)
1996 - 2001 M.Sc. Chemistry, University of Groningen
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Application of organic synthesis in materials chemistry, small molecule and polymer self-assembly, new synthetic methodology, catalysis, optoelectronic materials, soft materials, soft robotics, and dynamic and out-of-equilibrium molecular self-assembling systems, application of organic chemistry in biomedicine, protein modification, combined radio-chemotherapy
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- TU Delft Education Team Award for the Pre-University Chemistry MOOC
- TU Delft Bioengineering Institute MSc project grant
- MC-ITN 2018
- NWO-NSFC Advanced Materials grant 2017
- ERC Consolidator Grant 2016
- STW Open Mind grant 2016
- Delft Health Initiative seed grant 2016
- FOM programme grant 2016
- NWO Vidi grant 2013
- Early Excellence Profile in J. Phys. Org. Chem. 2013, 26, 287-288
- NWO Echo grant 2011
- NWO Complexity grant 2010
- NWO Veni grant 2009
- Marie Curie European Reintegration Grant 2009
- KNCV-Backer Award for the best Ph.D. thesis in Organic Chemistry in the Netherlands 2007
- Marie Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Grant 2006
- Rubicon Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Grant 2006
- Strating Prize for the best Organic Chemistry colloquium 2000–2001 at the University of Groningen. Title: “Palladium Catalyzed Tandem Reactions”
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- IChF online seminar “Breaking barriers - physical chemistry in biological systems” 2022
- Single Molecule Protein Sequencing conference, Delft 2022
- Dynamic covalent chemistry in water conference, University of Twente 2022
- NWO Chains 2022 Focus Session “Water-based dynamic covalent chemistry: molecules, techniques, materials”
- GRC Systems Chemistry 2022, USA
- LIBER symposium 2022, Helsinki, Finland
- RSC ChemSci2020, India (virtual) 2021
- Gent University 2019, Belgium
- Tsinghua University 2019, Beijing
- ICMSC, Lecce, Italy, June 2019
- KNCV SOC Wageningen Symposium, April 2019
- CHAINS, the Netherlands, December 2018
- ERC conference Israel, November 2018
- ArmChemFront, Yerevan, Armenia 2018
- Radboud University Chemistry Colloquium, Nijmegen NL, 2017
- ACS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, USA 2017
- KNAW (Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences) Academy Colloquium: Functional molecular systems going out-of-equilibrium 2016
- Micro- and Nanomachines: Chemical and Biological Nanomotors 2016
- MESA+ / UTwente Soft Matter+ event, NL 2016
- CHAINS soft matter, NL 2015
- GRC Supramolecular Materials, Italy 2015
- Wageningen University, NL 2015
- COST School Colloids and Interfaces, London UK 2015
- Delft Process Technology Institute annual symposium, NL, 2014
- Leiden University Chemical Biology Lecture, NL, 2014
- Prof. Ben Feringa's 100th PhD Symposium, NL, 2014
- Royal Dutch Chemical Society Spring Meeting, NL, 2014
- University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2014
- NWO Molecules: Synthesis and Properties, NL, 2013
- MRS Spring Meeting, San Francisco, USA, 2013.
- International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry, Durham, UK, 2012.
- Fysica-Chemie Conference 2012, University of Twente, 2012.
- Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, 2012.
- NERC institute Seminar, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, 2012.
- Department of BioNanoscience Seminar, TU Delft, 2012.
- Institute for Systems Chemistry Seminar, University of Groningen, 2012.
- WUR Department of Chemistry Colloquium, Wageningen, 2010.
- EUChems Young Investigators Workshop, Regensburg, Germany, 2010.
- Dutch Cancer Institute (NKI), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2009.
- KNCV-Backer award symposium, Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2007.