The Team
Who We Are
Spring 2022
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PhD students
Luca Denkler
PhD student-2021
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Luca grew up in Schöppingen, a small village at the border of the Netherlands. In 2014, she moved to the University of Cologne, where she obtained a bachelor's and master's degree in Chemistry. During her master, she specialized in "Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis" and published a project involving Ni, Pd, and Pt complexes. Then Luca moved to Bonn in 2021 to continue her doctoral studies in the working group of Ala Bunescu. Lucas' PhD thesis focuses on developing new earth-abundant metal-catalyzed decarboxylative cross-coupling reactions via light-induced LMCT.
Clemens Maurer
PhD student-2022
e-mail: clemens.maurer@uni-bonn.de
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Clemens grew up in the area of Bonn. After finishing High School, he did a volunteer year in a hospital in Bonn and then started his B. Sc. at the University of Bonn in 2014. He completed his bachelor thesis in 2018 in the working group of Prof. Höger with the emphasis on the synthesis of a large aromatic precursor. Then, after an internship at Peter Greven in Bad Münstereifel, he started his master degree in chemistry at RWTH Aachen in 2019. Clemens conducted his master thesis and continued his PhD studies in the group of Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu at Bonn. His PhD work focuses on Ni- and Co- catalyzed C–H functionalization of arenes and arene chromium complexes. In his spare time, his daily routine includes physical training and enjoying a nice cup of coffee.
Tak Shing Jason Ngan
PhD student-2022
Jason was born and raised in Hong Kong. He received his Bachelor's degree at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2018, in which he had been working in Prof.Wing Yiu Yu's group for two years on the study of Ligand-assisted, Transition metal-catalyzed regioselective C-H activation/functionalization reaction. In 2019, he decided to come to Bonn to pursue his Master's degree and worked for his master's thesis in Prof. Dr. Bunescu's group on the development of multi-catalytic systems for the dearomative difunctionalization of arenes. After graduating from the Master's program in 2022, he stayed in Prof. Bunescu's group for PhD's study and continue the study on the dearomative difunctionalization of arenes. In his free time, he likes to play guitar, go for hiking or backpacking, and cooking delicious foods.
Meghana Aladahalli Shekar
PhD student-2022
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Meghana was born and brought up in Karnataka, India. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Mysore, India in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Then Meghana moved to Rennes, France in 2021 to pursue a second master’s degree in catalysis where she worked with Dr. Olivier Galangau on the Synthesis of Ruthenium bis-acetylide complexes and their applications in metallogels. In 2022 she moved to Bonn to continue her doctoral studies in the working group of Prof Dr. Ala Bunescu. During her spare time, she writes poems, listen to music, enjoys travelling and cooking.
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Qing Zhuo
PhD students-2023
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Qing was born in Fujian, China, in 1997 and earned her Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering from the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai in 2019. During her Bachelor study, she participated in the Students Innovation Training Program, focusing on the synthesis and bioactivity testing of c-Met inhibitor BMS-777607 Analogue. After an internship at WuXi Apptec (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., she later moved to Magdeburg, Germany, where she pursued her Master’s degree in German at Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, completing a thesis on "Synthesis of Dihydropyran-fragments of (+)-Sorangicin A" under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Dieter Schinzer. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD in Prof. Bunescu’s research group and working on Fe-Photocatalyzed radical C-H functionalization via LMCT. In the spare time, Qing enjoys traveling, reading and listening to music.
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Kavin Raj Kumar Chandramohan
PhD student-2023
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Kavin is from Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, and earned his Bachelor's degree in General Chemistry from Bishop Heber College, Trichy, India, in 2020, where he was awarded the 'Best Overall Performer Award. With a keen interest in organic chemistry, in 2021 he moved to France to pursue an International Master’s program in Molecular Catalysis and Green Chemistry at the University of Rennes. This experience deepened his insights into organic synthesis & catalysis. During his research under supervision of Dr. Evgueni Kirillov, Kavin focused on phenoxy-imine (FI) ligand-based catalysts with early transition metals and pyridine-based PNP pincer ligand metal complexes, exploring their applications in olefin polymerization. His work in this area refined his skills in organometallic reactions under inert conditions. Currently, in The Bunesu’s group Kavin is engaged in his PhD work on the "Dearomative Functionalization of Arenes via Arene–Metal π-Complexation." Beyond his scientific pursuits, Kavin has been actively involved in community engagement initiatives. During his undergraduate years, he participated in outreach programs, conducting awareness campaigns on health, safety, and legal rights in rural areas, and inspiring primary school students by introducing them to science through hands-on experiments. In his spare time, Kavin enjoys cooking, travelling, reading novels, and playing sports.
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Ali Dbouk
PhD students-2023
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Ali was raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Lebanese University in Beirut in 2019 and 2021, respectively. During his studies at the Lebanese university, Ali served as an essential member of the Students' Council which help to enhance the student community. Following this, he received a scholarship from the Foundation Rennes 1 to pursue a second Master’s degree in Rennes, France. There, he worked under the supervision of Prof. Rafael Gramage-Doria on the synthesis of supramolecular organometallic complexes for sustainable catalysis. In 2023, Ali moved to Bonn to begin his PhD studies in the group of Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu. His doctoral research focuses on developing novel sustainable methods for cross-nucleophile coupling, combining transition metal catalysis with electrochemistry and photochemistry. In his free time, Ali enjoys reading and playing football.
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Xujiang Zhu
PhD student-2024
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Xujiang was born in Gansu, China. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Jilin University. In 2020, he joined Prof. Chuan He’s research group at Southern University of Science and Technology, where he focused on the synthesis of chiral silanols and the application of organosilicon compounds in targeted protein degradation. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Prof. Bunescu’s group, working on site-selective C–H functionalization enabled by multifunctional ligand design. In his free time, Xujiang enjoys playing sports and running.
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Post-Doctoral fellows
Anup Mandal
Post Doc -2022
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Anup was born and raised in the village of Barasimulia, West Bengal, India. He secured his bachelor's and master's degrees in Chemistry from Vidyasagar University, Medinipur. In July 2015, he joined the research group of Prof. Mahiuddin Baidya at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), Tamil Nadu, where he pursued his PhD focusing on transition-metal-catalyzed directed C–H bond activation/functionalization and visible-light-mediated radical reactions for complex molecular synthesis. Following his PhD, he joined Prof. Kwanmin Shin’s lab at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), South Korea, as a postdoctoral researcher in February 2021, working on metalla-catalyzed electrooxidative hydrofunctionalization of olefins with nucleophiles. In October 2022, he moved to Prof. Ala Bunescu’s lab at the University of Bonn, Germany, where he explored his research on non-directed C–H functionalization and dearomative difunctionalization of arenes. His research contributions were recognized with the Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Postdoctoral Fellowship, securing additional funding for his postdoctoral stay in Germany. Beyond research, he enjoys playing cricket, cards, listening music, cooking, and traveling with family and friends on weekends.
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Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hGfAsPAAAAAJ
ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1238-6209
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anup-mandal-b14aa5137/
Dr. Amrita Chaudhuri
Post Doc-2024
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Amrita Chaudhuri was born in West Bengal, India. She studied Chemistry (Hons.) at bachelor's level and obtained her master's degree with Organic Chemistry specialization from Vidyasagar University, India, in 2015. In the same year, she joined the NDPS research group at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India to pursue her PhD. In her doctoral thesis, she worked on Photoremovable Protecting Groups for spatiotemporal release of bioactive molecules. Her research area includes organic synthesis, photophysical and photochemical investigations of organic molecules. After finishing her Ph.D, in September 2021, she moved to Germany in October 2021 and joined Prof. Dr. Harald Schwalbe's research group at Goethe University Frankfurt for a collaborative project to expand her knowledge on the synthesis and application of organic small molecules towards biological systems. In September 2022, she moved to the University of Göttingen and, due to her great interest in photochemistry, began working with the Simeth group at the Institute for Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. In June 2024, she started her postdoctoral research in Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu's research group, focusing on the photocatalytic difunctionalization of alkenes. Apart from her research, she enjoys spending time with family, reading story books, especially thrillers, cooking various dishes and decorating rooms.
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Dr. Mohammad Zafar
PostDoc-2024
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Zafar was born in Lucknow, India. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Lucknow Christian College in 2012 and his master’s degree from Aligarh Muslim University India, in 2014. He received his PhD in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras under the supervision of Prof. Sundargopal Ghosh, focussing on borate based Ru(II) complexes and their utilization in small molecule activation. After the completing his doctoral studies in 2021, he joined Prof. Bera’s research group at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur as a research associate. In December 2021, he joined Dr Yuri Tulchinsky’s group as a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His research focused on the synthesis of novel sulfonium-based pincer ligands and their catalytic activities in p-acid catalysis. In November 2024, he started postdoctoral research in Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu’s research group, focussing on the site selective C-H functionalization. In his free time, Zafar enjoys spending time with family, reading books and playing cricket.
Master students
Fabian Herpell
Master student-2024
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Fabian studied Chemistry at the University of Bonn. During his Bachelor's Thesis he worked on a molecular photoswitch in the context of photopharmacology under the supervision of Dr. Larissa von Krbek. In his Master's Thesis he worked on the optimization of a novel approach for the synthesis of polyaryls under the guidance of Junior Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu.
Bachelor students and Interns
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Christopher Heinz Köhler
Intern student-2024
christopher.koehler@uni-bonn.de
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Christopher was born in Dormagen, Germany. He joined the group in 2023 as a research assistant and later conducted his Bachelor's thesis under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ala Bunescu, working on photocatalyzed-decarboxylative nucleophilic fluorination. He is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Chemistry at the University of Bonn.
Previous group members
Ruben Fleischer
PhD students-2022-2024
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Ruben was born in Nordhausen (Thüringen, Germany) in 1998 and finished high school in 2016 in Herzberg am Harz (Niedersachsen, Germany). He moved to Bonn in 2017 for his Bachelor studies and received his B.Sc. in 2020. His Bachelor thesis investigated the topic of carbene-stabilized low valent silicon compounds using computational chemistry in the working group of Professor Alexander C. Filippou. Since then, he is working towards his Master's degree in Bunescu Group and is currently continuing his PhD studies on the C-H borylation of π-arene Cr complexes. In his free time, Ruben likes spending time with friends, traveling to big cities and islands around Europe, and playing soccer.
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