Fimenich: Dr. Maud Reiter and Dr. Lionel Saudan

Dr. Maud Reiter is the Director of New Ingredients Discovery at the corporate R&D Division of Firmenich S.A. in Geneva (Switzerland). She received her undergraduate degree from Imperial College, London in 2002, followed by a DPhil under the supervision of Professor Véronique Gouverneur at the University of Oxford. After postdoctoral work with Professor David MacMillan at Caltech/Princeton University, Maud joined Merck& Co. in 2008 in Rahway, NJ, USA as a medicinal chemist. In 2011, Maud moved into her current position at Firmenich, where she is overseeing the discovery of novel, biodegradable perfumery ingredients.

Dr. Lionel Saudan is a Principal Scientist at the corporate R&D Division of Firmenich S.A. in Geneva (Switzerland). He joined the company in 2000, after a two years post-doctoral stay in the group of Professor J. M. Tour, working on the synthesis of a new “nanocar” at the University of South Carolina and at Rice University (Houston, Texas). He obtained his Bsc and PhD (1998) from the University of Geneva under the supervision of Professor E. P. Kündig working on the asymmetric synthesis of new chiral amines. His current research topics are in the field of homogeneous catalysed hydrogenation reaction in the context of the development of new perfumery ingredients.

Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd.: Dr. Christoph Boss, Senior Director Medicinal Chemistry, Oncology

Dr. Christoph Boss completed his studies at the University of Bern in 1996 with a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry under the supervision of Professor Reinhart Keese. After a postdoctoral year at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla in the group of Professor Julius Rebek, he returned to Switzerland to work for CABB, a specialty and custom chemicals company.
In 1999, he joined Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd.. After the takeover of Actelion by Johnson & Johnson in 2017, and the de-merger of the research organization into the newly formed Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Dr. Boss became responsible for all projects related to medicinal chemistry efforts in the oncology indication area.
In 2019, Dr. Christoph Boss received the SCS Industrial Science Award from the Swiss Chemical Society. He is a co-inventor on 107 published patent applications and author on 55 papers, abstracts, book chapters, commentaries, editorials and reviews.

Givaudan Schweiz AG: Dr. Fridtjof Schroeder, Research Fellow

Dr. Fridtjof Schröder is a Research Fellow at the Science & Technology Department in the Zürich Innovation Center of Givaudan in Switzerland. In 1993, he completed his studies at the Freie Universität Berlin with a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry (unnatural amino acids for peptide hormones) under the supervision of Prof. J. Mulzer. After postdoctoral studies in the groups of Profs. W. Oppolzer (organometallic chemistry) at the Université de Genève, G. Quinkert and A. Eschenmoser at the Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt (prebiotic RNA), and a two-year assignment  as a researcher at Cilag AG Switzerland (pharmaceutical chemistry), he joined Givaudan in 1999.

His current process research activities are in the areas of homogeneous catalysis, photochemistry and flow chemistry for the development of fragrance ingredients. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Organic Process R&D, an ACS journal, and published around 40 articles and patents.

ChemSpeed: Dr. Steffen Eller, Head Workflow/Chemistry/Support

Steffen Eller joined Chemspeed in 2012 as an Automation Chemist. From March 2015 to October 2015, Steffen Eller worked as a Workflow Architect before he became Head Workflow/Chemistry/Support and a member of the extended management board of ChemSpeed in November 2015. Since January 2019, he is responsible for the technical sales activities as Head Workflow Architects Life Science and Material Science. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral fellow at Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Berlin, Germany in the Biomolecular Systems group. Steffen Eller holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University in Bayreuth.

Lonza: Dr. Michaël Bersier, Laboratory Head Process-Research