Current group members
Piret Villo, PhD
Piret did her PhD with Dr. Lauri Vares at University of Tartu and with Prof. Peter Somfai at KTH and Lund University. During that time she looked into syntheses of analogues to an acetogenin – a bioactive natural product, as well as asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of α-amido-β-keto esters. After that she spent another year with Dr Vares studying new methodology how to functionalize biomass platform molecules. Her subsequent three-year postdoc work was done with Prof. Berit Olofsson at Stockholm University on hypervalent iodine chemistry making diaryliodonium salts and using them as arylating reagents. She is currently working on methodology development and kinetic studies of electrosynthetic reactions.
Jai White, PhD
Jai did his undergraduate and honours studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia. From 2019 until 2023, Jai completed his PhD at KTH in the Applied Electrochemistry division at the Department of Chemical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Ann Cornell. His thesis work focused on the electrooxidation of glycerol in alkaline media on Pd-based catalysts. Upon completing his PhD, he joined the Lundberg lab as a postdoc. He is currently focused on the electrochemical reduction of ethers and the development of electrochemical techniques for the analysis of organic transformations.
Johannes Winter, PhD
Johannes
completed his apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory assistant
in 2014 and subsequently held a position at Boehringer Ingelheim until
he commenced his bachelor studies in Biomedical Chemistry at the
Johannes Gutenberg University in 2016. Upon obtaining his M.Sc. degree
in 2022, he joined the research group of Professor Siegfried R.
Waldvogel, where he focused on the electrochemical synthesis of
heterocycles containing an endo- or exocyclic N-O bond. He completed his
doctoral studies in 2024 and joined the Lundberg lab in January 2025, currently working on electrochemical
deoxygenation of alcohols.
Pedro Jesus Tortajada Palmero, PhD
Pedro did his undergraduate and master studies in organic chemistry at the University of Barcelona up to 2018. Afterwards, he worked for one year as R&D technician for Hebron, in the field of blowing agents for the plastic industry. In 2019, Pedro joined the Martín-Matute group at Stockholm University. During his PhD studies, his research focused on organometallic catalysis with a sustainable perspective. The wide range of topics covered by his thesis include base metal catalysis, photo- and electrosynthesis as well as catalyst immobilization. After completing his PhD in 2025, Pedro joined the Lundberg lab. He is currently focused on the electrochemical valorization of biomass with the goal of enabling alternative and more sustainable feedstocks for the chemical industry.
Carlo Caianiello, PhD
Carlo completed his undergraduate and master's studies in Industrial Chemistry Science and Technologies at the University of Naples Federico II in 2020, within the Physical Chemistry of Colloids and Interfaces group. In the same year, he obtained a doctoral position at TU Clausthal under the supervision of Prof. R. Wilhelm, where he worked on the synthesis of new redox-active molecules for neutral pH aqueous flow batteries. After completing his PhD in March 2025, Carlo joined the Lundberg lab at KTH. Through a collaborative project with Assitant Professor Amirreza Khataee at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Professor Mårten Ahlquist at the Department of Chemistry, Carlo's current work focuses on the development of metal-free aqueous flow batteries.
Julius Kuzmin, PhD student
Julius received his masters’ education in molecular science and engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2021, doing his thesis work on application of sulfonimidamides in asymmetric synthesis under the supervision of Professor Peter Dinér. During his masters he did an exchange year at ETH Zürich (Switzerland) and worked for half a year on bicyclic hydroxylamines for faster KAT ligation in the Bode group. He is enrolled as PhD student since December 2021 and is currently working on electrochemical activation of strong polarized sigma bonds bonds.
Malin Lill, PhD student
Malin is enrolled as PhD student since August 2022 after receiving her MSc in Chemical Engineering from KTH Royal Institute of Technology earlier the same year after a diploma work in our group. She is targeting method development for electrosynthetic transformations with a particlar focus on reductive strategies.
Ellymay Goossens, PhD student
Ellymay received her master's degree in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Gothenburg and did her thesis work on development of an aerobic oxidative N-heterocyclic carbene catalyzed synthesis of highly functionalized benzene derivatives in the group of professor Henrik Sundén. She enrolled as a PhD student in January 2023 and is currently working on method development of electroreductive transformations.
Ziwei Fan, PhD student
Ziwei is a PhD student, working on electrosynthesis transformations and mechanistic studies thereof. She received her Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. From 2020 to 2022, she pursued her graduate studies in Chemical Engineering for Energy and Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Since September 2022, Ziwei has been enrolled as a PhD student, initally focusing on chemical sensing, and later on electrosynthesis transformations and mechanistic studies.
Alexandros Xanthopoulos, PhD student
Alexandros received his MSc degree in Organic and Medicinal Chemistry from the university of Gothenburg in 2024. He did his thesis in Dr. Carl-Johan Wallentin’s group on the synthesis and development of PCET-inducing photocatalysts and C-C bond formation via the β-scission of alkoxy radicals. He joined the group as a PhD student in September of 2024 in a collaborative project with the group of Professor Anders Riisager at DTU. Alex works on method development of electrochemical transformations.
Darius Pakarinen, PhD student
Darius is a PhD student in the group on 25% and the remaining 75% at the Division of Applied Electrochemistry (Dept. of Chemical Engineering, KTH) with Assistant Professor Amirreza Khatae and Professor Rakel Wreland Lindström, working on organic redox flow batteries. He carried out his MSc diploma thesis work on Lewis acid catalysis in the group during spring semester 2021 for his M.Sc. in Engineering.
Astrid Kjaer Steffensen, PhD student
Astrid is a PhD student in the group on ~25% and spends the rest of her time at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) with Professor Anders Riisager. Astrid enrolled as doctoral student in 2023 and works on electrochemical carboxylation on biomass-derived compounds with the purpose of creating renewable monomers for polymer applications. Astrid received her MSc degree in applied chemistry with focus on catalysis and green chemistry from DTU. She did her thesis work in the Riisager group working on catalyst development and mechanistic studies of furfural oxidation.
Caterina Momoli, visiting PhD student
Caterina graduated in Organic Chemistry from Sapienza University of Rome in 2019. She is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences at the University of L’Aquila, focusing on the synthesis of differents heterocycles catalyzed by Brønsted and Lewis acids, with a particular emphasis on gold salts. She is currently working as visiting student in the Lundberg lab, exploring the electrosynthetic activation of organic compounds.
Milla Vigliengo, visiting PhD student
Milla received her chemical engineering degree from CPE Lyon along with a Master's degree in Organic Chemistry from Université Claude Bernard in 2018. She is a third-year PhD student in the department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical engineering of Politecnico di Milano with Associate Professor Gianvito Vilé, focusing on developping single-atom catalyst for electrocatalysis applications. She is currently working as visiting student in the Lundberg lab, exploring the electrochemical stability and applications of heterogeneous catalysts.
Stan Van Dooren, MSc student
Stan received his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Avans University of Applied Sciences, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. He did his thesis in the Schaufelberger group on the synthesis of cleavable macrocycles for use in rotaxanes. He joined the group as a MSc student in March of 2025 for a 10 week internship.
Márk Holczer, MSc student
Márk earned his Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. For his thesis, he worked in the Kele group at HUN-REN RCNS, focusing on the synthesis of next-generation photocages. He joined the Lundberg Lab as an MSc Erasmus+ student, contributing to an electrochemically driven defluorinative project.