Jeroen Cornelissen is a highly creative researcher working at the intersection of polymer chemistry, supramolecular chemistry, and biomolecular chemistry. As a PhD student, he already made a name for himself in this interdisciplinary field by demonstrating that isocyanide-containing peptides can adopt special helix structures after polymerization, which also occur in proteins responsible for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
After returning from the United States, where he focused on the manufacture of new organic materials, he started his own line of research, designing and synthesizing biohybrid polymer systems. Without a doubt, his most prominent work is on the controlled assembly of virus particles. As is well known, viruses exhibit a wide variety of controlled structures of nanometer dimensions through self-assembly. Together with students and PhD candidates, he has enthusiastically tapped into a whole new field of research that can also be referred to as Chemical Virology. Viruses traditionally receive a lot of attention from physicians and biochemists because of their disease-causing properties. Chemical Virology looks at viruses in a different way, namely from the perspective of the chemist.
Once stripped of their genetic material, viruses have proven to be useful as tiny reaction vessels in which reactions can be carried out or substances can be stored. This research has taken off rapidly in a short period of time. Examples of applications in virus particles include carrying out polymerization reactions, precipitating inorganic materials, and synthesizing virus lipase conjugates, which showed greater activity than the original lipase molecules.
This line of research initiated by Jeroen Cornelissen thus offers enormous opportunities for future high-quality research.
Jeroen Cornelissen is a researcher through and through. He does not shy away from exploring new avenues in research. His research on viruses is an excellent example of this. He is innovative and knows how to inspire people. His work, which he can talk about in an inspiring way, has attracted the attention of colleagues and others around the world.
He is productive, as evidenced by his list of publications (close to 100), many of which have appeared in leading journals such as Science, Nature Chemistry, Nature Nanotechnology, JACS, and Angewandte Chemie. He has received many awards for his research, such as the IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, the SNS Bank Prize, and the Beijerinck Prize for Virology from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In addition to a VENI and VIDI award from NWO, he has also received a prestigious European Young Investigator (EURYI) award from the European Science Foundation. Finally, Jeroen Cornelissen also demonstrates social engagement, as evidenced by his participation in various forums on nanotechnology and its consequences, as well as his recent appointment to the board of the KNCV Organic Chemistry Section.
The Golden KNCV Medal is awarded each year to a young, promising chemist who, based on his or her achievements, can be expected to play an important role in chemistry in the future, whether in academia, industry, or elsewhere. Jeroen Cornelissen has proven himself to be an exceptional scientist who, in his relatively short career, has done groundbreaking work in the field of biomolecular nanotechnology. I therefore have every confidence in predicting that we will hear a lot more from him in the future and that he is a worthy winner of the 2010 KNCV Gold Medal.
