Arjan obtained his MSc (with honors) and PhD (Cum Laude) from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands). In 2002 he moved to Spain as a postdoctoral NWO TALENT fellow with Javier de Mendoza, and then he held another postdoc appointment at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) working with Joost Reek. He also held various scientific positions in the industry working as a project leader (Avantium Technologies) and senior research scientist (Hexion Specialty Chemicals). In 2006, he returned to Spain as ICREA Researcher and ICIQ Group Leader, and was promoted to ICREA Research Professor in 2011. He is member of the advisory board of Current Organic Chemistry (2014-), ChemSusChem (2016-), Journal of CO₂ Utilization (2017-), and Molecules (2017-). Guest editor for Catal. Sci. & Technol. (2014) and ChemSusChem (2016), chairman of the Carbon Dioxide Conversion Catalysis conference in Albufeira (Portugal) in 2016. Total citations >6600 and current h-index of 46.

Research interests

The research of my group focuses on the valorization of small molecules (including CO₂) into value-added chemicals and materials. We design new and more sustainable catalytic methods for their conversion and use in organic synthesis. As a key enabling technology, we use homogeneous catalysis approaches based on metal complexes and/or organocatalysts, and investigate important process features such as catalyst recycling, energy/material efficiencies and overall selectivity/reactivity profiles. In all these endeavors, we wish to solve challenging stereoselective and enantioselective transformations including those focusing on the preparation of allylic compounds featuring quaternary stereocenters.