Roeland Nolte

Roeland Nolte received numerous lecture awards, such as the Cornforth lectureship at the University of Sydney, the Eli-Burnstein lectureship at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Merck-Carl Pfister visiting professorship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He won several prizes, including the first Royal Academy of Science Professorship (2003), the Izatt-Christensen Award (2006) for his studies on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry, and the Linstead Life-time Achievement Award for his pioneering work on supramolecular phthalocyanine systems. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science, the Royal Belgian Academy of Science, and the Academia Europa. He was furthermore awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society. In 2004 he became a Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. After his retirement he received twice a prestigious ERC Advanced grant to study the encoding of information into polymers by supramolecular catalytic machines.

Nolte started his career as an assistant professor at the University of Utrecht and was promoted to associate professor in 1979. In 1987 he moved to Radboud University in Nijmegen as a Full Professor of Organic Chemistry. Nolte was appointed Adjunct Professor of Supramolecular Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 1994. In 2002 he became the first director of the new Institute for Molecules and Materials at Radboud University in Nijmegen, which he remained until his retirement in 2010. In honour of his contributions to science he was awarded a special Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science Professorship in 2003. Nolte retired in 2010 after which he received a special University professorship in Molecular Nanotechnology at Radboud University, which he still holds.

Roeland Nolte attended Gymnasium Ruimzicht in Doetinchem, where he graduated in 1963. Thereafter, he studied chemistry at the University of Utrecht, where he received his Master degree in 1969. He continued his studies at the same university, earning a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry on the synthesis and properties of a new type of polymer in 1973 (supervisor Wiendelt Drenth). After a postdoctoral stage with Nobel laureate Donald J. Cram he joined the Faculty of Science of Utrecht University as an assistant professor.

Roeland J. M. Nolte (Bergh, 1944) is a Dutch chemist, known for his work in the fields of organic chemistry, biochemistry, polymer chemistry, and supramolecular chemistry. He is an emeritus Royal Netherlands of Arts and Sciences professor and an emeritus professor of Organic Chemistry at Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Currently, he holds a special chair, i.e. professor of Molecular Nanotechnology, at this university. Nolte is considered to be one of the pioneers of the field of supramolecular chemistry, which encompasses the design and synthesis of new chemical structures from low molecular weight compounds and biopolymers using so-called non-covalent interactions. He published many studies on supramolecular assembly and biomimetic catalysts, which find applications in the field of nanomaterials and medicine.