I am an associative thinker, and an incurable dreamer. I challenge the Status Quo, but suffer from imposter syndrome, devote entirely too much time on figures, probably swear too much (and too loudly), plan well ahead, but then make impulsive decisions. I am usually involved in organizing one event or another, and often meddle in things I only begin to fully comprehend once I am doing them. I love working with my motivated and passionate team – together we forge what we have learned into new tools that we hope all can eventually benefit from.
I enjoy a good book, occasionally craft with wood, abide incompetence, love passionate people, enjoy dark humour, fear zealous bureaucracy, practice cooking, hate inefficiency, adore discovering new music, like running, like sleeping more.
On a more official note: Michel Rickhaus (*1985, Switzerland) received his Master’s degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Basel (2011, with honours). During that time, he was working with Prof. Lawrence T. Scott in Boston College (USA, 2010) as a visiting scholar, before beginning his PhD studies with Prof. Marcel Mayor (2011-2015, summa cum laude) at the University of Basel on helical polyaromatics. He then joined Dr. med. Johannes Beck as a research associate (2015-2016, Swiss Civil Service) working on depression predictors in sleep stages. From 2016 to 2019, Michel was a SNSF funded postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University with Prof. Harry L. Anderson investigating non-planar π-conjugation in porphyrin rings and related topologies. In August 2019, Michel started his independent research as group leader (SNSF Ambizione) at the University of Zurich.