New president of EuChemS Floris Rutjes
Floris Rutjes, a synthetic organic chemist who is vice-dean at Radboud University in the Netherlands and also vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society, took the helm of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) on 1 January. Rutjes assumed his new role as head of the umbrella organisation for European chemical societies after being elected at the EuChemS general assembly in Bucharest, Romania in October 2020. He succeeds Pilar Goya, a research professor at the Spanish Research Council’s Institute of Medical Chemistry in Madrid, and will remain in post until the end of 2023.
Rutjes’ work focuses on developing new and sustainable synthesis methodology, designing and synthesising biologically active small molecules, as well as new probes for bio-orthogonal conjugation, and continuous flow chemistry in microreactor systems. He earned a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Amsterdam in 1993, and did his postdoctoral wor