Invited speakers

 - Daniel ABERGEL:

Daniel Abergel is a research director at CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research) and currently head of the “Structure and Dynamics” group of the Laboratoire des biomolécules at ENS-Paris. He received his MD in 1993 and his PhD in 1994. His activity has been oriented towards fundamental aspects of NMR, including nonlinear dynamics, the development of stochastic (Markovian and non Markovian) models for protein dynamics, and has recently shifted towards the field of DNP hyperpolarization, with a focus on applications to enzyme kinetics, in-cell metabolism and maser dynamics.

- John W. BLANCHARD:

John received his PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014 for his work on zero- to  ultralow-field (ZULF) NMR with Alex Pines. In 2015 he was awarded a Helmholtz Postdoctoral Fellowship to work with Dmitry Budker in the Matter-Antimatter Symmetry (MAM) Section of the Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, a part of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung. Since 2020, John has been the Associate Director of NMR Applications at NVision Imaging Technologies GmbH, working on new techniques and instrumentation for nuclear-spin hyperpolarization in MRI and liquid-state NMR. In 2021, John was part of an interdisciplinary team selected for the Erwin Schrödinger Prize, the Stifterverband Science Award of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, for developments in the production of high-purity ¹³C-hyperpolarized metabolites using parahydrogen. His other areas of research have included chemical analysis, reaction monitoring, quantum control, precision measurement of molecular parity nonconservation, and searches for axion-like dark matter.

- Meghan HALSE:

Dr Meghan Halse is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the University of York (UK).  She received her PhD in Physics from Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) in 2010, working under the supervision of Prof Paul Callaghan. During her PhD, she developed new methods for hyperpolarised Earth’s field NMR and MRI. From 2010-2013 she carried out post-doctoral work on simulating proton spin diffusion and developing homonuclear decoupling sequences for solid-state NMR under the supervision of Prof Lyndon Emsley at the Centre for very high field NMR (CRMN) at the CNRS in Lyon, France. Dr Halse joined the Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance (CHyM) at the University of York (UK) as a post-doctoral fellow in 2013, before taking up an independent Lectureship in Chemistry in 2015. Her current research focuses on the development of novel NMR and MRI methods and applications using hyperpolarisation to improve sensitivity, with a particular focus on the development of low-field and portable NMR solutions with applications outside of the traditional laboratory environment.

- Christian B. HILTY:

 I am a Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, located in College Station, TX, USA. My lab currently holds a portfolio of research projects, which aim at solving problems pertaining to macromolecular structure and dynamics; molecular interactions; drug discovery, metabolism and enzymology; chemical catalysis; and other topics in chemistry and biochemistry. We are developing and applying new nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques with nuclear spin hyperpolarization, including dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization and para-hydrogen induced polarization, to increase sensitivity and observe signals with high time resolution. Previous to my appointment at Texas A&M University, I have carried out postdoctoral work with Prof. Alex Pines at Berkeley on the topic of hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging coupled to microfluidics (2006). I have obtained my doctoral degree with Prof. Kurt Wüthrich at ETH Zürich, in NMR spectroscopy of membrane proteins (2004).

- Sami JANNIN:

I am a Professor and deputy director at the Very High Field NMR Center of Lyon, and head of the hyperpolarized magnetic resonance team (http://hmrlab.eu). Previous to my appointment as Professor in Lyon, I have carried out postdoctoral research at the EPFL in Lausanne in the laboratory of Geoffrey Bodenhausen with the support of Bruker Biospin. My research interests are spanning from the development of dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP) methods, sample chemistry, and instrumentation for both MRI and NMR spectroscopy, to the exploration of some dDNP enhanced applications in diverse fields such as analytical chemistry, drug discovery, or metabolomics.

- Arno P. M. KENTGENS:

 Arno Kentgens (b. 1959) got his Ph.D. on the development of two-dimensional solid-state NMR in 1987. He then became a staff scientist at the Philips Research Laboratories. From 1988-2000 he was supervisor solid-state NMR of the Dutch HF-NMR facility and was appointed full professor at Radboud University Nijmegen in 2000. His research program combines the study of materials, particularly energy materials, catalysts, and polymers, with NMR methodology developments ranging from pulsed methods to study quadrupolar nuclei to solid-state micro-MAS. Liquid-state NMR focuses on sensitivity enhancement for the analysis of complex mixtures. Overhauser DNP, rapid-melt DNP and PHIP are promising routes toward highly efficient detection of minute sample quantities. State-of-the-art supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) hyphenated with microfluidic NMR has been developed. Currently, stripline NMR and PHIP are being optimized for the development of high throughput screening for drug discovery in the HiSCORE ERC Synergy project. Further probe developments include in-line and operando analysis of battery systems and for the study of electrochemical conversions. He is member of the board the Institute for Molecules ad Materials, heads the Netherlands’ Magnetic Resonance Research School (NMARSS) and is Treasurer of EUROMAR.

- Mathilde H. LERCHE:

Mathilde H. Lerche is an associate professor in the field of Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance. In addition, she is the head of the translational imaging center (TIC), hosted by the Health Technology Department at the Technical University of Denmark. Her expertise lies generally within metabolism and signal enhanced and conventional magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging. She is experienced in cell biology, physiology, metabolism, pharmaco-kinetics and toxicology; assays for personal medicine; cell models (yeasts, bacteria and human cells); animal disease models (rodent models of ischemia, various cancers, liver fibrosis and neurodegenerative diseases; pig model of metabolic syndrome); enzyme kinetics.

 - Benno MEIER:

Benno received his PhD (summa cum laude, with Jürgen Haase) in Physics from Leipzig University in 2012 for research on NMR in pulsed magnetic fields up to 60 Tesla.  He then joined Malcom Levitt's lab at the University of Southampton School of Chemistry, where he worked on quantum rotors, long-lived states and hyperpolarization. In 2015 he was promoted to Senior Research Fellow. While working on spin isomer conversion of H₂O@C₆₀, he conceived bullet-DNP, an alternative to dissolution-DNP with potential advantages for NMR spectroscopy. In 2018 he received an EPSRC Early Career Fellowship to further explore this approach. Also in 2018 he was awarded a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. Benno and his team transitioned to KIT in October 2019, where they set up a hyperpolarization lab from scratch. In 2019 Benno founded the spin-off HyperSpin Scientific UG, together with Karel Kouřil and Hana Kouřilová.  In 2020 he received funding for the ERC Synergy Project HiSCORE, together with Geoffrey Bodenhausen, Jan Korvink, Arno Kentgens and Alvar Gossert.

- Kerstin MÜNNEMANN:

Kerstin Münnemann studied chemistry and worked during her PhD on applications of hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe NMR and MRI in the group of Prof. Blümich. In 2006, she joined the group of Prof. Schreiber at the university medical school Mainz, Section for Medical Physics as a postdoc. Here, she worked on myocardial perfusion imaging and the hyperpolarization of liquids via DNP and PHIP. In 2008, she became project leader in the group of Prof. Spiess at the MPI for polymer research in Mainz continuing her research on various kinds of hyperpolarization methods. In 2012, she joined the group of Prof. Landfester at the MPIP and worked on the development of contrast agents for MRI. In 2016, she became head of the NMR/MRI laboratory in the group of Prof. Hasse at the university of Kaiserslautern. Her work is still focused on hyperpolarization via ODNP and para-hydrogen, but now with a strong emphasize on reaction and process monitoring with medium and high field NMR. Since 2018 she is head of the biannual symposium NMRPM “Quantitative NMR Methods for Reaction and Process Monitoring”.

 - Indrek REILE:

Dr. Indrek Reile studied organic chemistry in the Tallinn University of Technology, where he worked on metal-organic catalysis and reaction mechanisms, receiving a PhD degree in 2012. He joined the NMR laboratory of the National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics (NICPB) in Tallinn in 2012, focussing on applied NMR and particularly on diffusion NMR. Combined interests in chemistry and magnetic resonance led to postdoctoral studies with Dr. Marco Tessari in the Radboud University in the Netherlands in 2014-2016, where he worked on methodology and applications of parahydrogen hyperpolarization. He moved back to NICPB in 2017, where he manages the solution NMR laboratory and studies applications of parahydrogen hyperpolarization.

 - Ville-Veikko TELKKI:

My career has focused on the development and application of advanced NMR techniques in materials research. In my PhD studies at the University of Oulu, I developed a novel method for characterization of porous materials by means of ¹²⁹Xe NMR spectroscopy of xenon dissolved in a medium, called Xenon Porometry, and the work culminated in a PhD degree in physics in March 2006. From August 2005 to December 2006, I worked as a (postdoctoral) fellow in the research group of Prof. Alexander Pines in UC Berkeley, concentrating on remote detection imaging of flow of hyperpolarized fluids. Then I returned to Oulu. I have supervised the experimental NMR research group since March 2012 and redirected its research towards development and application of novel, advanced NMR and microimaging methods (such as remote detection NMR, relaxation, and diffusion methods) as well as hyperpolarization techniques (PHIP and SEOP), microfluidic flow and reaction profiling, materials research (e.g., effect of thermal modification on the microstructure of wood), and biosensors. The experimental NMR group forms the NMR Research Unit together with the NMR theory group, which concentrates on the computational prediction and analysis of NMR parameters by quantum-chemical and molecular simulation methods. The experimental activity is in a tight connection with the development of theoretical analyses and models. In 2018, I received European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (CoG) of 2.6 M€ for the Ultrafast Laplace NMR, and I was also promoted to a professor position.

- Marco TESSARI:

Marco Tessari is assistant professor at the Magnetic Resonance Research Center led by prof. Arno Kentgens, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His area of expertise includes bio-molecular NMR, development of NMR methodology and application of NMR techniques to chemical analysis. Over the last ten years he has been mainly active in the development of hyperpolarization methods based on parahydrogen induced polarization (PHIP) with the purpose of enhancing NMR sensitivity. His most recent works focus on the application of non-reversible PHIP techniques for the NMR detection and quantification of dilute components in complex mixtures such as natural extracts or biofluids. He is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry (Wiley).

- Marcel UTZ

 Marcel Utz is Professor of Magnetic Resonance at the University of Southampton, UK. His main research focus lies on the integration of microfluidic lab-on-a-chip technology with NMR spectroscopy and imaging. He believes that there is great potential for NMR in the context of LoC devices, due to its versatility, resolution, and non-invasive nature, which make it an ideal tool to study complex living systems. He is also interested in the behaviour of complex materials, such as polyelectrolyte hydrogels and brick-and-mortar type micro-composites, and random porous media. Marcel serves as editor Acta Chimica Analytica, and is a member of the editorial board of «Magnetic Resonance». He has authored more than 75 articles in major journals and several book chapters. He is recipient of the medal of ETH for his PhD thesis, of an Early Career Award by the US National Science Foundation, and of a Marie Curie Career Integration award from the 7th EU research framework programme. He is currently an International Excellence Fellow of the Helmholtz Society at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Marcel obtained an MSc in materials science from ETH Zürich in 1994. After his PhD in the groups of Prof. Ueli Suter and Prof. Richard R. Ernst, and a postdoc at Princeton University, he joined the Institute of Materials Science and the Department of Physics at the University of Connecticut as an Assistant Professor. He later moved to the University of Virginia, where he joined the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Chemistry. Since 2012, he heads the section of Magnetic Resonance within the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton. Marcel lives in Winchester, UK, with his wife Song and their son Nicolas.