Dr J.N.H. Reek (b. 1967) has been appointed professor of Supramolecular Catalysis at the Faculty of Science of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) as from 1 January 2006.

Joost Reek obtained his PhD degree in Nijmegen in 1996 in the field of supramolecular chemistry, a research field which is the domain of chemistry, biology and physics. He began at the UvA in 1998 as lecturer and engaged himself with the development of new homogeneous catalysers based on organometallic combinations. At present he mainly focuses on the application of supramolecular concepts in catalysis, which has resulted in catalysts that are much easier to construct and which can easily be reused. The use of supramolecular concepts gives access to catalyst systems with fundamentally different properties. Reek’s research focuses on understanding these properties so they can be used optimally and so that chemical processes can be made cleaner and more energy efficient. According to Reek, new chemical processes play a very important role in pursuing a society which is perfectly balanced with its surroundings. Reek received the VICI-subsidy from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for his research Supramolecular catalysis: catalyst assembly, dynamic combinatorial catalysis and catalytically active nano-objects in 2003.

Reek was appointed senior university lecturer at the Van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences of the UvA in 2003 and was recently elected member of the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).