About TomÁŠ

Tomáš (*1985, Slovakia) fell in love with chemistry when he was enticed by his high-school teacher to take part in Chemistry Olympiad competitions. He turned the joy of learning chemistry into a successful representation of Slovakia at the 36th International Chemistry Olympiad in Kiel, Germany, in 2004 from where he brought home a silver medal. He then joined Masaryk University in Brno (Czechia), where he soon started doing research in the laboratory of organic photochemistry under the supervision of Prof. Petr Klán finishing with a Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry (2009, with honours). During that time, he spent his Erasmus semester with Prof. Thomas Bally in Fribourg (2008) where he got enchanted by Switzerland. Therefore, he commenced joint-PhD studies with Prof. Petr Klán and Prof. Thomas Bally (2009-2014, summa cum laude) in both Brno and Fribourg combining experiments and theory to understand reactive intermediates generated by light or heat. In 2010, Tomáš spent a year in Prague at the Institute of Chemistry and Technology with Prof. Petr Slavíček. After his PhD, he became an Experientia Foundation postdoctoral fellow and moved to Basel in autumn 2014 for a wonderful period of 8 months to conduct research with Prof. Michal Juríček, a collaboration that lasts until present. From autumn 2015 to spring 2017, Tomáš was pursuing his ideas on new three-dimensional electron acceptors for organic photovoltaics as a SNSF postdoctoral researcher in Chicago at Northwestern University (USA) with Prof. Michael R. Wasielewski. In September 2017, Tomáš started his independent research as an SNSF Ambizione group leader at the University of Basel. In 2020 he obtained an ERC Starting Grant with which he moved to the University of Bern in April 2021.