Author: M.Sc Killiann Heinz, Ph.D Student

Dear readers, welcome to this very late newsletter. Let us tell you what happened between October and December in the DSC group.

In September, the traditional event NOC VĚDY took place in Czech Republic and the UCT of Prague participated. Of course the group showed some chemistry to the large public through a stand.

In November, the student scientific conference (SVK) has seen multiple of our students presenting their work and results. Marek classified 3rd in his category, and Michal successfully took the first place for his presentation. Congratulations to them and also to the others, Vladimir, Danylo, Bruno and Alžběta for their involvement to this exercise !

Still in November I had the opportunity to take the role of chairman for the IDCAC 2nd edition at the UCT in the organic chemistry category. It has been a pleasure to attend again this edition with interesting presentations covering all the chemistry fields.

Bruno, our former Erasmus intern is back and joined again the lab but this time as full time Master’s student, welcome back !

December is of course the opportunity for the group to meet for the traditional Christmas dinner. This December was a bit special as Harry concluded its journey with the group and went back to UK for a new position. We wish him the best for the future and a good continuation !

That is all for this end of 2025, the whole DSC group wishes you an happy new year 2026 !

Dear readers, once more the newsletter is quite late… A new semester started, we welcome the new students and wish them the best of luck for their studies as well as to the ones who continue their path toward, we are sure, a well deserved degree.

Meanwhile, as you know Summer is usually the time for conferences and this year again, our members went across Europe to share the research results, seek fruitful discussions and collect ideas, network and experiences.

Harry went to Italy from 29^th of June to 3^rd of July to give a talk about “Systems and their control – from photochemically controlling imine exchange to OFETs” at the Joint 50^th Congress of the Physical Chemistry Division of the Società Chimica Italiana and 5^th European Conference on Physical Chemistry.

Bruno, our Erasmus student has been to the University of medicine and pharmacy Carol Davila in Bucharest, Romania between the 2^nd and the 4^th of July to present his last results with poster at the Annual meeting of Net4Brain.

Still in July, Anna H introduced her work with organometalic photocatalysts at the University of Bern, Switzerland for the XXVI European Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (EuCOMC) 2025

Killiann travelled to Germany, in Aachen attending the International conference of photochemistry were he presented a poster about his progress with triangulenes and photocatalysis. He also met some old colleagues from previous university there !

In August, no conference for Valentino, but he travelled to UK, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories to perform some measurement with our acylhydrazones photoswitches.

Killiann went to Pardubice (Czech Republic) to give a talk about our last results with triangulenes at the French-Czech conference, the 14^th Barrande-Vltava Meeting.

Beginning of September, the members of the group still in Prague enjoyed another barbecue session to reunite around something else than chemistry and lab.

The 23-25th of September, Harry wento to Franfurt am Main to present a poster, “From System Chemistry to OFETs” at a conference focused on semiconductors.

Finally the group took part of the Noc vědců a science popularization event. An opportunity for our group to introduce to the large public our research and how they can benefit to the health of the people.

That’s it ! Our interns went back to their different countries to continue their journey and our students are now back in lab to shine with chemistry ! Danylo Dementiev a new Master student will work in our group. Warm welcome to him and we wish him success !

I let you here, and we meet same place for the next and last newsletter of 2025 !

Welcome back readers, for this newsletter covering April to June 2025 ! The end of the semester is as always marked by graduations and theses defenses.

This summer, we welcomed 3 interns, 3 french girls, Emma, Océane and Elise. They are respectively coming from Chimie ParisTech, university of Poitier and the ESCOM. While Emma will perform some experiments with triangulenes, Océane will work with iridium complexes photocatalysis and Elise will work with DAOF derivatives. We wish them good luck for their stay the whole summer !

This year, our 3 bachelor students, Hannah, Vladimir and Oleksandr successfuly defended their theses the 16th of June, congrats to them and we wish them the best for the future! In the same time, Océane has also defended her internship report to finalize her 1st year of Master !

Before that, Michal and Valentino went to Paris to perform experiments at the Synchrotron SOLEIL with acylhydrazones. They enjoyed the Sun and croissants.

Harry finalized his work and submitted a manuscript, accepted and published ! You can learn more about imine exchange photochemical control here.

The summer is also the season of the traditional barbecue. The whole group enjoyed some grilled meat, fish and vegetables for the first informal group meeting of the summer.

June was concluded by the visit of Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Prize co-laurate in 1987. An opportunity to organize a workshop at the UCT and chaired by Petr.

This is closing the newsletter of the spring and while the students enjoy the summer break, the lab is still going, but the people will alternate between research, holidays and conferences! See you at the end of September, enjoy the break and drink water !

Dear readers, it is time for our regular newsletter ! First of all, happy new year ! and the whole group whish you the best for this (already well started) year !

This newsletter will be a bit shorter this time as the period of transition between semesters was as usual focused on reports and applications for funding… Nevertheless, we say congratulations to the students who passed their exams and good luck for the incoming semester !

In January The whole group met for the traditional Christmas/New year dinner. The DSC people have the opportunity to enjoy a fancy steakhouse !

New students joined within the beginning of this year: Alžběta joined for her bachelor studies and we welcomed Mani and Ewen, two French Erasmus interns for 3 months. Chiara, an Italian intern and alumni of the DSC group is back for doing her Master thesis with us !

In March, I had the opportunity to take part of a famous French contest called “Ma thèse en 180 seconds (MT180)”. An opportunity to popularize my thesis in 3 minutes in front of a public of non-scientists. No victory, but made new connections and met new people from different fields, passionated by science popularization as well.

Finally, Martin’s work about photoswitching acylhydrazones has been accepted and published. You can already read it here !

It is the end of this newsletter. We will be back in 3 month with news !

Welcome readers, for the last newsletter of 2024 !

Petr enjoyed the warm weather of Italy between the 6th and the 9th of October to attend to “XIII International Symposium on Nano & Supramolecular Chemistry“. An opportunity to introduce our recently accepted manuscript, that you can read here.

From 8th to the 10th of October, Martin and Harry went to Germany to present their works at the conference “Harnessing Light Energy with Molecules
Beilstein Organic Chemistry Symposium 2024“.

The 15th of October, UCT of Prague welcome high-school students for the “Youth Academy” (Akademie Mládeže) event. Petr introduced the importance of reversible bonds and the fun linked to this chemistry !

The 9th of November, I took part of the 1st International
Doctoral Conference on Advances in Chemistry at the UCT of Prague. A conference organised by Ph.D students. I have been honored to receive the best oral presentation prize (category organic chemistry).

In November took place the Annual Student scientific Conference (SVK). Both Vladimir and Michal participated and introduced their work and results.

6th of December was the informal group meeting, were the group has been able to solve the internal rivalties with a lasertag game.

Our group is welcoming 2 new members, Bruno, for a 6 months Erasmus and Alžběta a second year of bachelor student. Welcome and best of luck for your work !

Finally, the whole department enjoyed the annual Christmas party to celebrate and enjoy a social event.

As usual, I am closing this last newsletter of the year by wishing you happy celebrations and also a happy new year. Let’s have a though for the people who are spending Christmas alone, far from their home/family, who have lost somebody.

May the force the health, prosperity and happiness be with you in 2025, and see you in March for the next newsletter !

Hello and welcome to this newsletter, synthesizing (you got it ?) the activity between July and September.

Let start by the graduated students, and we congratulating Rita and Phuong for their successful Master defenses ! Marek also passed his Bachelor defense, and will continue his Master with us.

A lot of conferences this year again, starting with Anna, going to Dublin (Ireland) to present a poster at the 9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress between 7-12th of July. I had the opportunity to go for one week in Toronto (Canada) between the 11th and the 16th of August to present our last result at the 20th International Symposium of Novel Aromatics compounds (ISNA24). Petr went to Ljubljana (Slovenia) to take part of the Net4Brain (COST22103), a networking event regrouping scientists working on sensing, monitoring and beating the brain cancer.

Anna also went in Dusseldorf (Germany) for a month, as intern in Thomas J. J. Müller group.

The 27th of September, for the Science Night, the group demonstrated to the large public different ways to convert energy in light, chemical bonds or electricity. An opportunity to exhibit what chemists are doing in laboratories.

Finally, we are proud to share the last accepted manuscript of the group: Cell surface morphology mimicking nano-bio platform for immune cell stimulation. Check it out !

That’s all for this summer ! The semester started, so it is time to wish best of luck to the students for the new school year and I will see you next time in December for the next newsletter !

PS: The group is now on BlueSky ! Find and follow us !

Dear readers, it is my pleasure to write a fresh newsletter concerning the activities of the group ! April-June period was a fruitful for the members, starting with the graduations !

Anna N. is now a proud engineer in chemistry ! She will soon leave us to continue her journey in Germany for a PhD. We wish her the best and successful research !

Jakub H. also conclude his Master and we wish the best for the future !

Marian M. also achieved his defense, concluding his Bachelor. He decided to explore others fields, good luck !

June has been rich in talks ! Petr K. gave a talk about the group to the Experiencia day at the IOCB. On the other hand, Killiann H. went to Italy to present a poster at the conference PHOTOCAT24.

The Nobel prize laureate Jean-Marie Lehn visited Prague, and came to the UCT. The whole group has been able to talk about their work and enjoy some time to discuss with one of the pioneers of the supramolecular and the molecular recognition.

That is all for this newsletter ! Summer is coming, so each members and students will take some holidays before the new school year ! Stay tuned, as the summer is also the period of conferences. Enjoy the sun and see you in September !

Hello readers,

End of March is almost there and it is time for our regular newsletter ! As usual, January-March period is calm, and time is mostly spent to lab work, courses for students, teaching for professors and administration work. In additon, the group is also planning the future targeted conferences to communicate about our work.

From January to March, we welcomed two French Erasmus interns, Léa and Corentin from the universitarian technical institute of Rennes. They respectively worked on organo-perovskites film for water electro-splitting and photoswitches applied to organo-catalysis. The whole group wishes the best for them for the future and hopes they enjoyed their stay with us !

The traditional Christmas/New Year Eve group dinner took place in January. A social moment where we can discuss about something else than chemistry, and forget a bit the pressure and deadlines.

A very good news, Martin, Anna H. and myself succeded to obtain one more year the internal UCT grant VIGA2024. This financial support will allow us to cover some research costs for our projects.

We are welcoming a new Bachelor student, Hannah B. and a new Erasmus intern, Sergio Barros ! Wish them luck and fructful results !

Concerning conferences, Anna H. is going to Berlin in April for the Inspireurope Stakeholder Forum. I will attend the the Photocat24, at the university of Padova (Italy) in June and introduce my work at the ISNA24 (Canada) in August.

That is the conslusion of the this newsletter, wishing you the best, and see you in June for the next newsletter !

Dear visitors, it is already time for the last newsletter of 2023 and the whole group joins me in wishing you a Merry Christmas and happy festivities. This period has been characterised by our participation in conferences and we also welcome new people!

The entire group travelled to Špindlerův Mlýn (CZ) for the 57th Conference on Advances in Organic, Bioorganic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Liblice 2023). Valentino, Rimeh and I had the opportunity to present our work through oral communications. Petr also presented the whole group and our field of research as an invited speaker. Rita, Anna H., Martin, Anna N. and Harry presented their work with posters. At the end of the event, Anna N. was honoured with the “Best Poster” award!

An usual event for UCT Prague is the Scientific Student Conference (SVK), where students from individual laboratories can present their work to committees. This year Anna N. won first place!

Anna H. gave a speech about her work for the MSCA Fellows Conference to present her work and talk about her experience.

In September, we welcomed two new Bachelor students, Vladimír Krucký and Oleksandr Detsyk. Two high school students, Aneta Hodíková and Roman Bodínský, have also joined our group! Rimeh is leaving us for new horizons and experiences. The group wishes her all the best for the future!

This concludes the late newsletter Sept-Dec 2023 ! The next newsletter will be the first of 2024 !

*****

The end of this year has been marked by a tragic event at Charles University. As an university, students, academics, but also individually, we are deeply saddened and would like to express our condolences to the families of the victims and our full support to our colleagues, friends and people affected by this tragedy. Violence is often used as a shortcut for people who favour the easiest route… But remember that we grow from the difficulties… and improve. The real strength lies in staying on the right path, even when you might abandon it.

“Strength and violence are solitary gods. They give nothing to the memory.”

Albert Camus

As usual, summer has been pretty calm. A priviledged time to take some rest and holidays. It is also time for conferences and sum up the work of the year and already prepare the new year.

Our Master student Anna N. went to Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (ICReDD), Hokkaido University (Japan) for the whole summer. She had the opportunity to develop her skills in the Dr. Dennis Chung-Yang Huang’s group, has also introduced our group and a poster at the conference ICP2023 .

Rimeh and me have also presented posters at two different conferences. Rimeh went to Bratislava (Slovakia) for the 15th Polymer Meeting to introduce her recently published work about Sequential in-situ growth of layered conjugated polymers for optoelectronics under electrochemical control. On my side, I went to the 12th Barrande-Vltava Czech-French meeting in Olomouc. I was really proud to bring back the “best poster” award for the group!

The whole group said farewell to our interns, Mélissa (FR), Théo (FR) and Arda (TR). We wish them all the best for the future! We also said goodbye to Beena, who went back to India for an Associate Professor position. Congratulation and good luck!

Small newsletter, but we expect much more for the end of the year 2023 ! The whole group is planning to attend the 57th Advances in Organic, Bioorganic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry – Liblice 2023. And we expect few published paper as well!