Personal information
Dr. Maikel Wijtmans studied Organic Chemistry at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he graduated in August 1998. He subsequently worked at DSM Research as a temporary researcher on biocatalysis and organic oxidants until June 1999. Thereafter he moved to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA where he started his PhD on organic ligands for nanocrystals and on the development of novel antioxidants.
After completion of his PhD work in 2003, Maikel returned to the Netherlands where he joined the Division of Medicinal Chemistry as a postdoctoral fellow. During the next few years, he participated in various projects involving e.g. the development of histamine- and chemokine-receptor ligands as well as the study of derivatization reagents for ESI-MS techniques. In 2009 and 2023, he was appointed assistant and associate professor of Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry. His current research interests involve the design and synthesis of compounds that are of interest in biological contexts. Here is a presentation he gave in April 2022 on fragment-based drug discovery (and the potential to use biomass) and here is one from 2019 on photopharmacology (as applied to G protein-coupled receptor proteins).
Maikel also has an interest in educational innovation, preferably in a combination with chemistry. The focus in these efforts is on the use of IT tools to stimulate active learning and he has been exploring several of such approaches since 2010, supported by educational innovation grants from VU Amsterdam. In 2013, he received the Dutch national KNCV chemistry teaching award (awarded every three years to a teacher from academia). Here is a workshop he gave in February 2020 on some of his educational innovations (application of Blended Learning and Flipped Classroom).
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