OUR GUEST SPEAKERS
Journées Méditerranéennes des Jeunes Chercheurs
Academic researchers
Pr. Nicolai Cramer
EPFL, Lausanne, Switerland
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Nicolai Cramer studied chemistry from 1998 to 2003, at the University of his native city. He obtained his PhD in 2005 under the supervision of Professor Sabine Laschat. After a research stage at Osaka University, Japan, he joined the group of Professor Barry M. Trost at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2006. He then worked on his habilitation at the ETH Zurich associated to the chair of Professor Erick M. Carreira and received the venia legendi in 2010. Since 2010, he resides at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland where he started as assistant professor, then was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and finally to Full Professor in 2015.
He leads the “Laboratory of Asymmetric Catalysis and Synthesis” research group. He and his teams’ focus are on rational ligand design of various motifs and their applications in C-H functionalization, allowing for unique bond formations in high enantioselectivity.
Pr. Marco Sangermano
Photopolymer, Torino, Italy
After a Master Degree in Organic Chemistry at the University of Turin, Marco Sangermano joined for his PhD the Politecnico di Torino, where he studied cationic photopolymerization of propenyl and vinyl ether monomers. After his PhD graduation in January 2000, he made a post-doc in the Professor’s Crivello labs at RPI in Troy, New York, USA. He then came back at the Politecnico di Torino for a second post-doc in the Materials Science Department, in which he obtained a position as Researcher-Assistant Professor in 2004. He was promoted Associate Professor in 2010.
Marco Sangermano main activities are in the field of photopolymerization, structure-properties relationships studies, tailoring formulations for achieving specific properties, surface modifications by employing fluorinated or silicone additives and preparation of nanostructured polymeric coatings.
Dr. Karine Alvarez
AFMB, Aix-Marseille
Dr. Karine Alvarez completed her PhD on oligonucleotides prodrugs in 1999 at the university of Montpellier, under the supervision of Dr. Jean-Jaques Vasseur, she continued with postdoctoral research at the university of Barcelona with the late Dr. Enrique Pedroso, where she worked on the synthesis anthracene-based telomerase inhibitors.
Since 2001 she has been part of the Laboratory of Architecture and Function of Biological Macromolecules (AFMB) at the University of Aix-Marseille, in the Viral Replicases team, where she is now senior researcher. Her current research is focused on the discovery and development of compounds active against viral polymerases. She focuses on the study of protein active sites, structure-activity predictions for active sites, nucleoprotein conformations as well as inhibitor synthesis.
Industrial Speakers
Dr. Fabien Rodier
Head of process chemistry, Sanofi Sisteron, France
Fabien Rodier obtained his PhD in 2012 under the supervision of Dr. Gaëlle Chouraqui and Prof. Laurent Commeiras at Aix-Marseille University. After a Post-doctoral fellowship at Servier in medicinal and organic chemistry, he joined Sanofi in 2015. He is currently the head of process chemistry teams France and has a strong experience in process chemistry from early development project to submission. His main duties are to ensure the design, development and implementation of efficient and sustainable syntheses and processes for small molecule APIs of the portfolio using new technologies, design of experiment and efficient data-driven acquisition.
Dr. Laurent Petit
Minakem Deputy R&D Director
Laurent Petit obtained his PhD in 2010 under the supervision of Prof. Samir Z. Zard at Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau. After a Post-doctoral year at the Australian National University in Prof. Martin G. Banwell’s group, he joined Minakem in 2012 as a team leader in the process R&D department. Minakem is a manufacturer of fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). In 2016 he spent a year at Fareva as a chemistry expert and came back to Minakem to manage the generics APIs and Building Block R&D activities. In 2019, he became the R&D manager on the Minakem Louvain La Neuve site to ensure the chemical development activities related to highly potent compounds. After three years in Belgium he became the R&D director at Minakem overseeing all chemical development activities for the group. His main duties are to guarantee the chemical development of APIs with creativity, innovation, and sustainable and scalable solutions.
Dr. Roman Lagoutte
Principal Project Manager Route Scouting/Process Optimization, Senior Team Leader, Senior Research Scientist at SpiroChem
Roman Lagoutte obtained his PhD in organic chemistry in 2010 under the supervision of Dr. James Wilkinson at the University of Salford. After a Post-doctoral position under the guidance of Dr. Ullrich Jahn in Czech Republic, he joined the University of Geneva as a Post-doctoral researcher with Prof. Alexandre Alexakis. In 2014, Roman Lagoutte signed up for another 3-year-Post-doctoral position in the University of Geneva under the guidance of Prof. Nicolas Wissinger. With such a background, Roman Lagoutte acquired an impressive expertise in natural product synthesis, medicinal chemistry, methodology and catalysis. He ultimately joined Spirochem as a research scientist in 2018 and rapidly became team leader as a senior research scientist. He is now the principal project manager for the route scouting and the process optimization.
