Research Group Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt
Contact:
dr.ir. Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt
Assistant Professor
Homogeneous, Supramolecular and Bio-Inspired Catalysis
Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences
Faculty of Natural Sciences University of Amsterdam
P.O. Box 94720
1090 GS Amsterdam, the Netherlands
phone: +31 (0)20 525 6459
e-mail: j.i.vandervlugt(a)uva.nl
Biography:
Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt (1975) studied chemistry & chemical engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands, from late 1993 till early 1999. He then joined the newly established Homogeneous Catalysis group of prof. Dieter Vogt at the TU/e and in late 2003 also became the first member of the group to earn his PhD. degree. For the work described in his thesis, dealing with the design of novel, versatile ligand scaffolds and their application in the Rh-catalyzed hydroformylation, he was awarded the 2003-2004 Catalysis Prize of the Royal Dutch Chemistry Association (KNCV). After a short stay as a research fellow in Eindhoven, he switched gears (and continents) and moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) in early 2004 to carry out postdoctoral research with prof. Tom Rauchfuss in the area of bioinorganic chemistry, working on small-molecule models for the Fe-only hydrogenase active site. Supported by an Alexander-von-Humboldt Fellowship he moved to the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen in Germany in late 2005 to join the research group of prof. Franc Meyer, where he developed new dinucleating bipyridyl functionalized pyrazolate ligands predestined for self-assembly. Mid 2006 he was awarded a VENI Innovation Grant by the Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) and he relocated to the TU/e at the beginning of 2007 to start his independent research (in the group of prof. Vogt) in the area of homogeneous catalysis and coordination chemistry, with a focus on N-H activation, hydroamination catalysts, non-innocent ligands and cooperative effects in catalysis. Late 2008 he moved to his present position as assistant professor in the Supramolecular and Homogeneous Catalysis group of prof. Joost Reek at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in the Netherlands. He received a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for the period 2012-2017 and he currently heads a group of 4 PhD students; he is also committed as co-PI to several other projects (both PhD and PDF) within the research group. He is actively involved in teaching on both B.Sc. and M.Sc. levels, with emphasis on inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, homogeneous catalysis and bioinorganic chemistry as well as supervising various laboratory courses. He is a member of the national HRSMC and NIOK Research Schools and the EU COST action “PhoSciNet”.
Various PhD positions:
Current Research Profile
The group has a strong, experimental background in (in)organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry and homogeneous catalysis, mainly directed to ligand design and (asymmetric) hydrofunctionalization reactions. Current work deals with new ligand concepts and applications in e.g. encapsulated metal complexes (Chem. Commun. 2010; Inorg. Chem. 2010). A highlight (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2010) and invited review (Chem. Soc. Rev. 2010) show our passion for novel concepts and catalytic reactivity. 
The group is currently very active at the forefront of the new research field of cooperative catalysis with non-innocent ligands, with contributions focussed on the use of earth-bundant, benign first row transition metals with versatile ligand frameworks (minireview Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2012). 
We described the first example of hemilabile coordination and reactive chemistry with PNP-ligands 
to Cu (Inorg. Chem. 2008, 2009) and related chemistry with Ni (Dalton Trans. 2009), illustrating the groundbreaking potential for bioinspired cooperative catalysis with these sustainable metals, as well as practical applications with Pd(Organometallics 2009). The first class of tunable flexidentate ligands was recently developed (Organometallics 2011).Research on cooperative systems will open up a wide range of 
catalyticorganic transformations and is foreseen to have major impact on the utilization of renewable feedstocks and challenging small molecules. A recent review (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009) and invited contributions to themed issues (Dalton Trans. 2011); Inorg. Chim. Acta 2012) demonstrate our developing position in the area of cooperative ligand design and underscore our ambition to become a leading group in this field. We collaborate withspectroscopists and computational chemists to gain 
fundamental insight for these systems. Current interests include bioinspired small molecule activation, bioinorganic chemistry, ligand design, catalysis for green energy production and cooperative catalysts. Jarl Ivar van der Vlugt obtained several grants in recent years, including an ERC Starting Grant in 2011.
