PhD Defence - Victor Verduijn

On 6 October 2026, our friend and colleague Victor Verduijn defended his PhD thesis, titled “Manipulating Molecular Matter”, in the Academy Building of the University of Groningen. His promotors were Prof. Tibor Kudernác and Prof. Nathalie Katsonis.

In his thesis, Victor studied whether synthetic supramolecular assemblies can exert directed force the way biological machines do. With optical tweezers, he measured a zipping force of about 1.4 pN between supramolecular fibres that form through an LCST phase transition. This is the first quantitative measurement of zipping force in a synthetic system. The thesis also covers a single-component hydrogel that combines strain-stiffening with plasticity, self-propelled droplets that act as flow-driven reactors, and fibrillar networks inside giant vesicles.

His thesis can be found in the University of Groningen Research Portal (full text available from October 2027).

Congratulations, dr. Verduijn!