People

Timo Repo received his PhD in 1997 from University of Helsinki under the guidance of Prof. Markku Leskelä. During 1998 - 2003 he worked at University of Helsinki, first as a postdoctoral researcher and then as an Academy researcher, the latter granted by Academy of Finland. In 2003, he was appointed as Academy research fellow by Academy of Finland. In July 2007 he was nominated as a professor of green chemistry at University of Helsinki. During his PhD studies and later career, he has been actively collaborating with Prof. Bernhard Rieger in Technical University of Munich.

His research is focused on the development of inorganic/organometallic chemistry, green chemistry, homogeneous catalysis, especially catalyst development for major chemical transformations including oxidation, reduction, C-H activation, and C-C coupling applied for small molecule activation and biomass valorization.

Petra Vasko received her PhD in 2015 from the University of Jyväskylä, where she worked in the group of Prof. Heikki Tuononen studying reactivity of novel main group compounds. After defending her doctoral thesis, she relocated herself to the UK to work as a postdoc in the group of Prof. Simon Aldridge at the University of Oxford. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Academy of Finland Research Fellow grant and she is now establishing her own research group in Helsinki. Her main research focus is on experimental and computational investigations of main group and organometallic complexes and their unusual reactivity with small molecules.

My main focus in teaching and research is chemical crystallography, structural chemistry, and X-ray structure analysis, showing the influence of the structure in the solid state, but also in solution, on the chemical and physical properties. This covers a wide area of inorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, organic chemistry and supramolecular chemistry.

Since 1994 I’m a Docent for Crystallography at the University of Joensuu and in 2011 I was appointed as a Docent in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Helsinki.

For more information, see Martin's TUHAT research portal page.

My research focuses on the liquid organic hydrogen carriers that could be used for transportation and storing of renewable energy.

Dr. Anže Zupanc finished his PhD on sustainable transformations in halogenated and chalcogenated organic compounds  at University of Ljubljana at Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Hi research is now mostly focused on dissolution and recycling of noble metals in organic solvents.

Todd Elliott is working on carbon dioxide capture, to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Current research is regarding the use of amidinium and guanidinium superbases to capture CO2 for either storage or further use in subsequent reactions.  Characterisation of the chemical species will allow for further understanding and tunability for improved performance that can supersede current industrial technologies.

My aim is to develop methods for environmental hydrogen production, preferably from water. Research is focusing on complex synthesis and their evaluation for water splitting properties (production of hydrogen and/or oxygen).

I am also known as great t-shirt designer and tea ceremonial leader at our research group.

For more information, see Aleksi's TUHAT research portal page.

My research work consists of two parts. One is aimed at searching for the reaction mechanism when catalyzing six carbon sugars, then exploring how the coal is formed via chemical reaction. The other is searching for the missing tool for biorefinery, chemicals and materials from renewable feedstock, namely lignin.

Read more about Biomass valorization.

Joseph Install completed his undergraduate studies at the Department of Chemistry at The University of York (UK) before moving to the University of Helsinki to begin Ph.D. studies in 2021. His research interests are green and sustainable approaches to modern chemistry for a circular economy, including green process design. Also work on lab automation techniques and integration into chemical research.

Liselotte Karulf received her Bachelor's (2018) and Master's (2020) degrees in chemistry from Aarhus University in Denmark. In August 2020, she joined the CatLab supervised by Timo Repo for her PhD studies. Liselotte’s research focuses on the activation of CO2 catalyzed by transition metal complexes and its application in fine chemical synthesis. 

In November 2020, she was elected Student Representative on the Steering Committee for NordCO2.

Dr. Bhavesh Parmar received his PhD, titled “Structural and Functional Studies on Multidimensional Coordination Polymeric Networks”, in 2020 from the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (AcSIR), India, conducting his doctoral research primarily at the CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSIR-CSMCRI) under the guidance of Prof. E. Suresh. Following his PhD, from 2021 to 2022, he worked as a CSIR-Research Associate at CSIR-CSMCRI on a project, “Application of Mixed-Linker MOFs Towards CO2 Sequestration and Chemical Sensing of Pollutants”, funded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-India). Subsequently, between 2022 and early 2025, he worked in Japan at Kyushu University and The University of Tokyo, holding positions first as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow and later as a Research Assistant Professor on projects, “Creation of MOFs Upconverting Near Infrared Light to Visible Light” and “Realization of multi-exciton control based on rational molecular design”, both funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS-Japan). In 2025, he joined Prof. Timo Repo’s Research Group at the University of Helsinki, Finland, as a Postdoctoral Researcher focusing on rare earth element (REE) recycling. His research interests include developing multifunctional coordination polymers (CPs), metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), MOF-based nanocomposites, and organic macrocycles for applications in environmental remediation (such as sensing/encapsulation of pollutants, CO2 sequestration, catalysis, water splitting, and REE recycling) and photonics (including triplet fusion, singlet fission, photogenerated spin qubits, and quantum information science (QSI)). Furthermore, he possesses expertise in small molecule crystallography and identifies as a chemical crystallographer.

Miia Kokkonen did her Bachelor´s and Master´s Degrees in the University of Oulu. She is currently doing her PhD in the University of Helsinki focusing on catalytic modification of hemicellulose into polymer raw materials.

Jahir Uddin Ahmad received his PhD in 2012 from University of Helsinki under the guidance of Prof. Markku Leskelä and Prof. Timo Repo. During 2012 - 2013 he worked at Catlab as a postdoctoral researcher. Currently, his research is focused on activation of air oxygen catalyzed by organo-molecules in water which composes as an environmental begin system. He is also interested the synthesis and characterized of Nano catalysts for oxidation of alcohols in water as a solvent.

Dr. Zahra Eshaghi Gorji received her PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Tehran (2021). After the defence, she worked as a process engineer for an oil & gas company in Iran (2021-2023). Currently, she is a post-doctoral researcher in CatLab supervised by Prof. Timo Repo. Her research is focused on Direct Air Capture of CO2 (DAC) by superbase containing compounds. 

Jussi Lundahl is Academy Research Fellow, Dr. Petra Vaskos first PhD student. His PhD focus on main group and transition metal-containing heterobimetallic complexes in small molecule activation and catalytic applications. 

My studies focus on development of novel Frustrated Lewis Pairs concepts. The aim is to activate H-H bonds for development of novel metal based and particularly metal-free hydrogenation catalysis and hydrogen storage concepts.

Kati Meriläinen focuses on natural material characterization and plasticization. 

Her PhD is in collaboration with Sulapac Ltd. 

Nikita Slesarchuk graduated from the Chemistry Department of Moscow State University (2020) and also worked at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Science in the Laboratory of Molecular Design and Synthesis (2017-2020). In the fall of 2020, he joined to the CatLab for obtaining a PhD.



His main research dedicated to the development of new FLP applications in organic synthesis.

Lena Stiegler completed her undergraduate studies at the FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg before starting her Ph.D studies under the supervision of Dr. Petra Vasko at the University of Helsinki. Her research focus on the synthesis and characterisation of a library of new Frustrated Lewis Pairs based on resorcinol and related backbones, and to study their properties in catalytic applications, especially in hydroamination reactions.

Jukka