Pol Besenius was born in Wiltz, Luxembourg in 1981, where he grew up and completed secondary school education. In 2000 Pol started his Chemistry studies at the Vienna University of Technology, being awarded a ‘1. Diplomprüfung’ in 2003. As an exchange student he spent a year at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, and graduated as a BSc with 1st Class Honours in 2004. From autumn 2004 until early 2008 Pol completed his PhD studies at the University of Strathclyde and WestCHEM Research School in Glasgow, under the supervision of Prof. Peter Cormack and Prof. David C. Sherrington FRS, in collaboration with Prof. Sijbren Otto and Prof. Jeremy K. M. Sanders FRS at the University of Cambridge. In 2008 Pol took up a Postdoctoral Research Assistant position at the Eindhoven University of Technology with Prof. Anja Palmans and Prof. E. W. “Bert” Meijer, being awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship in the Laboratory for Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems.

From 2011 to 2014 Pol was as Group Leader, in the Organic Chemistry Institute at the University Münster and the Center for Nanotechnology under the mentorship of Prof. Bart Jan Ravoo, supported by a Liebig Fellowship from the Fonds der Chemischen Industrie (FCI). In December 2015 Pol completed his Habilitation and received the venia legendi in Organic Chemistry.

In January 2015 Pol was appointed as W2 Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry at the Institute of Organic Chemistry, now Department of Chemistry at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. In 2022 Pol accepted an offer as W3 Professor of Macromolecular Chemistry and Supramolecular Biomaterials at the Johannes Gutenberg University. Since 2026 Pol is also RMU Co-affiliate of the Department of Chemistry at TU Darmstadt.

Web of Science – ORCID – Google Scholar

Recent Publications:
  • Spokesperson of the Research Training Group (RTG 2516) “Structure Formation of Soft Matter at Interfaces”, since 2022; Vice Spokesperson, 2020-2022
  • Co-Spokesperson of the Integrated Research Training Group (IRTG) “Defects to Effects Engineering in Materials Sciences” (DEEMS)
    of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC 1552) “Defects and Defect Engineering in Soft Matter”, since 2023
  • Vice Spokesperson of the Collaborative Research Center (CRC 1066) “Nanodimensional Polymer Therapeutics for Tumor Therapy”, 2020-2025
  • Coordinator of the DAAD International Study and Training Partnership (ISAP) with Kyushu University, Fukuoka, since 2021
  • Coordinator of the DAAD International Study and Training Partnership (ISAP) with Seoul National University, since 2024
  • Coordinator of the DAAD International Study and Training Partnership (ISAP) with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2017-2023
  • Management Committee Member, “Searching for Nanostructured or pOre fOrming Peptides for therapY” (SNOOPY) – COST Action 23111, since 2024.
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  • Vice Spokesperson of the ‘Junges Kolleg der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste’, 2014
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  • Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Macro Letters, since 2024
  • Associate Editor for Organic Materials (Thieme), 2018-2025
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  • Member of the Gutenberg Council for Academic Careers (GCC), since 2024
  • Deputy Head of the Department of Chemistry, JGU Mainz, 2020-2023
  • Member of the Steering Committee (since 2023) and vice-chair of the Q+ Study Program, JGU Mainz, since 2024
  • Member of the Commission for Studies and Teaching in Chemistry (Ausschuss Studium und Lehre), JGU Mainz, 2020-2024
  • Member of the Examination Committees (Prüfungsausschüsse) for the Chemistry and Biomedical Chemistry B.Sc./M.Sc. and B.Ed./M.Ed. degrees, JGU Mainz, 2019-2024
  • Contact person for the Karl Gückinger-Stiftung (since 2020, link) and Frühstudium (since 2021, link)
  • Chairman of the Organic Colloquia Lecture Series, JGU Mainz, 2015-2021, 2023
    (co-chaired with Prof. Till Opatz, 2019-2021)

Contact – Besenius Lab