In the course of 2022, we could finally resume our regular day-to-day activities and leave the COVID pandemic behind us. Although members of our staff experienced occasional infections and, in some cases, prolonged effects of the disease, as an institute we were able to return to what we do best: conducting cutting-edge research and providing high-quality education. We like to thank all staff and students for their resourcefulness and perseverance during the pandemic.

The researchers at our institute were very successful in acquiring external grants. Among many others are the high-impact personal grants of Giulia Giubertoni,and Bob Pirok (all Veni laureates), the ERC Consolidator Grants for professors Timothy Noël and Wim Noorduin, and the Rubicon grants for Dr Tessel Bouwens and Dr Eduard Bobylev.

In total, 23 young researchers obtained their PhD at our institute. Dr Eduard Bobylev received his doctorate with the distinction 'cum laude'. A number of 247 peer-reviewed publications arose, including 9 joint publications from collaborating HIMS groups, often involving interdisciplinary collaborations across the different HIMS themes.

We have seen a number of noteworthy changes in the HIMS staff. Dr Ioana M. Ilie started as a tenure track assistant professor in computational biophysics as part of the 'Connecting Science' programme of the Faculty of Science. Dr Joen Hermans was appointed as an assistant professor of Conservation Science on a position shared with the Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory and Material Culture (AHM) at the Faculty of Humanities. We also recruited assistant professors Dr Tomáš Šolomek and Dr Alberto Pérez de Alba Ortíz to start their work in 2023. We welcomed entrepreneur Ruud Koornstra as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Science, contributing to research, education and valorisation in the field of sustainability. We said farewell to Peter Timmermans after being professor by special appointment of Protein Mimetic Chemistry for fifteen years. Finally, Dr Jocelyne Vreede was appointed as the new programme director of the Chemical Sciences Bachelor taught as a joint degree with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, succeeding Dr Sape Kinderman who held the position for over eight years.

In 2022, HIMS researchers received notable awards and recognitions. On the day of his valedictory speech and the symposium marking his retirement, Prof. Peter Schoenmakers was named Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. It honoured his exceptional achievements in the field of analytical chemistry that were further underpinned by an ACS Award in Chromatography and the  LCGC Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography award. Dr Tessel Bouwens received the Dick Stufkens Prize of the Holland Research School of Molecular Chemistry for her PhD thesis. The ’Sisters in Science’ initiative of our colleagues Lotte Schreuder, Mimi den Uyl and Noor Abdulhussain was awarded the Van Marum prize of the Royal Netherlands Association of Chemistry (photo) in recognition of their contributions to enhance the visibility of chemistry. Prof. Timothy Noël received a ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship Award. Alumnus Milo Cornelissen was awarded a Unilever Research Prize for his remarkable Master’s research and assistant professors Dr Andrea Gargano and Dr Bob Pirok were featured in ‘Top 40 Under 40’ of analytical scientists worldwide.

The valorisation of HIMS research and knowledge had several highlights worth sharing. Postdoc researcher Tijmen Bakker was selected among the first fellows of the Dutch national Faculty of Impact programme to further develop his idea for solar cells for greenhouses, which generate electricity while still leaving light available for plant growth. Prof. Sander Woutersen and Dr Giulia Giubertoni were awarded an NWO Demonstrator Grant for the development of a structure- and size-sensitive chemical probe based on the combination of microfluidic technology and infrared spectroscopy. Dr Stefania Grecea and Dr Olivier Lugier were awarded a Proof-of-Concept grant by Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA) to advance a newly developed method for the synthesis of hybrid core-shell nanoparticles and bring these promising nanomaterials from lab to market. Finally, the University of Amsterdam reached a license agreement with the Gouda-based company atum3D on a method for fast, large-scale 3D-printing with sub-micron resolution, developed at our institute.

Finally, since HIMS has grown significantly over the past years, a reorganization and relocation of  office space and laboratories has been initated. Thanks to the willingness of all of HIMS this has been a successful effort that is in fact still ongoing. To conclude, we mention that in 2022 we have worked hard to follow up on our strategy to enhance cross-disciplinary collaborations, which is now starting to pay off in terms of joint research efforts and publications.