Nature uses electrocatalysis to control the redox cycli of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen compounds. Marc Koper is a physical electrochemist who studies how to steer and catalyze such redox reactions for sustainable energy and chemistry combining experiment, theory and catalyst design principles.

More information about Marc Koper

Biography

Marc Koper (1967) studied chemistry at Utrecht University, and obtained his PhD (cum laude) with Prof. J.H. Sluyters from Utrecht University in 1994 on “Far-from-equilibrium phenomena in electrochemical systems: instabilities, oscillations and chaos”. 
From 1995 to 1997 he was a postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellow in the group of Prof. W. Schmickler at the University of Ulm (Germany). In 1997, he returned to the Netherlands to join the group of Prof. R.A. van Santen at Eindhoven University of Technology, where he initially was a Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and later associate professor. 
In 2005, he was appointed full professor in fundamental surface science at Leiden University.

His interests are in electrochemistry, electrocatalysis, (electrochemical) surface science, and theoretical and computational (electro-)chemistry.

Curriculum Vitae

Personal information

Nationality: Dutch
Date of birth: 5 May 1967

Education

1994   PhD, Faculty of Chemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, 23 November 1994 (cum laude)
Thesis title: ‘Far-from-equilibrium phenomena in electrochemical systems’
Advisor: Prof. Dr. J.H. Sluyters
1991   MSc in Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Current and previous research positions

2005 – now     Full Professor in Fundamental Surface Science, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, The Netherlands
2002 – 2005   Associate Professor, Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
1997 – 2002   Fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis, Eindhoven University of Technology (Prof. R.A. van Santen)
1995 – 1997   Post-doctoral Researcher, Abteilung Elektrochemie, Universität Ulm, Germany, supported by NATO and EU fellowships (Prof. W. Schmickler)

Grants, awards, recognitions since 2016

2019-2022   Highly Cited Researcher in the field of Chemistry (Web of Science)
2022   Elected Member of AcTI (Netherlands Academy for Technology and Innovation)​​​​​​​
2021   KAIX Distinguished Lectureship Award (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)​​​​​​​
2021   Spinoza Award of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO)​​​​​​​
2021   ERC Advanced Grant​​​​​​​
2021   Allen J. Bard Award for Electrochemical Science (The Electrochemical Society)​​​​​​​
2019   Schulich Visiting Professorship Award, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology​​​​​​​
2019   Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Award​​​​​​​
2018   Elected as President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (serving from 2019)​​​​​​​
2017   NWO TOP grant​​​​​​​
2017   Elected Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences​​​​​​​
2017   Faraday Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry​​​​​​​
2016   Selected as member of the Advanced Research Center Chemical Building Blocks Consortium ARC-CBBC
2016   Brian Conway Prize for Physical Electrochemistry of the International Society of Electrochemistry

Contribution to teaching and supervision

• Two undergraduate courses for BSc Molecular Science and Technology (Leiden/Delft): Physical Chemistry and Kinetics, and Catalysis
• One course for MSc Chemistry at Leiden University: Electrochemistry

Co-supervision of 20 finished PhD theses and ca. 20 postdoctoral fellows since 2016.

Other responsibilities since 2016

• President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (2021-2022)
• Board member of the Netherlands Institute for Research in Catalysis and the Holland Research School for Molecular Chemistry
• Scientific Advisory Board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) of the California Institute of Technology and the University of California at Berkeley
• Organizer of 67th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, 21-26 August, 2016, The Hague, 1650 participants (with M.Van Brussel)
• Organizer of Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Conference, 2021 and 2022 (with Irene Groot)
• Editorial board member for the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, ChemCatChem, ChemElectroChem, Current Opinion in Electrochemistry, ACS Applied Energy Materials, Chemistry Europe
• Editor of Journal of Catalysis

Publication record including five recent representative publications

>450 papers with >42000 citations, H-index 109 (Web of Science)

Full publication record: ResearcherID, Google Scholar

• A.H.M. da Silva, G.Karaiskakis, R.E.Vos, M.T.M.Koper, Mechanistic insights into the formation of hydroxyacetone, acetone, and 1,2-propanediol from electrochemical CO2 reduction on copper, Journal of the American Chemical Society 145 (2023) 15343-15352. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c03045
• S.Park, L.Liu, C.Demirkir, O.van der Heijden, D.Lohse, D.Krug, M.T.M.Koper, Solutal Marangoni effect determines bubble dynamics during electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution, Nature Chemistry (2023), in press. DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01294-y
• O.van der Heijden, S.Park, J.J.J.Eggebeen, M.T.M.Koper, Non-kinetic effects convolute activity and Tafel analysis for the alkaline oxygen evolution reaction on NiFeOOH electrocatalysts, Angewandte Chemie International Edition 62 (2023) e202216477 (10 pages). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202216477
• K.Ojha, K.Doblhoff-Dier, M.T.M.Koper, Double layer structure of the Pt(111)-aqueous electrolyte interface , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 119 (2022) e2116016119 (9 pages). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2116016119
• M.C.O.Monteiro, F.Dattila, B.Hagedoorn, R.Garcı́a-Muelas, N.López, M.T.M.Koper, Absence of CO2 electroreduction on copper, gold and silver electrodes without cations in solution, Nature Catalysis 4 (2021) 654-662. DOI: 10.1038/s41929-021-00655-5

Presentations including five presentations at international conferences since 2016

Numerous invited presentations at universities, companies and institutes, and invited, keynote and plenary lectures at international conferences since 2016.