May 28, 2026
JACS Au Cover!
Our recent paper on C–H hydrogen bonding is featured on the cover of JACS Au!
In an era of hyper-realism, AI-generated imagery, and deep fakes – where anything can be made to look like a real-life photograph – we went a different route… There is something deeply satisfying about watching the artwork come to life in real time in a truly old-school way.
Amazing 12-year-old Zlata Korotchenko has made this happen.
May 27, 2026
Marco's Defense and Group Lunch
Marco defends his Bachelor’s thesis today, and we go for a Vietnamese group lunch at Hang’s. Delicious stuff (and truly Vietnamese portions)!
May 26, 2026
New Group Member!
Enola De Maio-Levy from the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay joins us for a research internship. She will be working with us through the summer on development of new probes.
May 20, 2026
COLLABORATOR'S Visit
Prof. Alexei Kananenka from the University of Delaware (Newark, USA) visits us for Anton’s annual PhD Committee Meeting and fruitful debate.
We continued discussions while enjoying proper Swiss fondue!
May 12-13, 2026
Academic Visitor
Dr. Krupa Ramasesha from Sandia National Lab (Livermore, USA) visits us and gives a fantastic Department Seminar on photodynamics of iron carbonyls and energetic materials tracked with state-of-the-art fs broadband IR and XUV probes.
We continued discussions while hiking Mount Rigi!
May 11, 2026
New Group Member!
Fabio Rodigari makes a comeback to our lab to start his Master’s thesis!
Welcome back, Fabio!
May 11, 2026
Website is Live
Our new group website is now live! More information and updates will be added over the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned!
May 6, 2026
Paper published!
Our first study on alkyne C-H bonds is published today in JACS Au! Using a combination of mid-IR, NMR, and ultrafast broadband THz spectroscopy across 50+ solvation environments and supported by AIMD simulations and SAPT quantum calculations we show that C-H can be a strong proper hydrogen bond donor. Not only does it hydrogen bond to atoms, but also to aromatic π-systems and even single non-polar C=C bonds. Through systematic analysis we devised a purely experimental approach to decompose the electric field effects from non-electrostatic components to H-bonding in these bonds.
May 4, 2026
SEMINAR at EMPA
Bogdan gives a seminar at EMPA in Dübendorf (Laboratory of Transport at Nanoscale Interfaces). Warm thanks to Mirjana Dimitrievska for the invitation and hosting. Very interesting discussions and lots of opportunities for collaboration using their amazing nanoscale fabrication and engineering techniques!
April 21, 2026
SEMINAR at the University of Geneva
Bogdan gives a seminar at the Department of Physical Chemistry at the University of Geneva. Thanks a lot for the invitation and hosting – so good to be back!