Rate My Professor Thomas Hansen

Thomas Hansen is an Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Science, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He received his M.Sc. in Chemistry summa cum laude from Leiden University in 2015 and his Ph.D. cum laude in 2020 from the same institution, focusing on stereoselective glycosylation reactions supervised by Prof. Jeroen D.C. Codée. After his doctorate, he conducted postdoctoral research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Division of Theoretical Chemistry from August 2019 to July 2021 under Profs. F. Matthias Bickelhaupt and Trevor A. Hamlin, exploring computational aspects of organic synthesis. Subsequently, from August 2021 to August 2022, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Barcelona's Department of Organic Chemistry under Prof. Carme Rovira, investigating enzyme catalytic mechanisms using QM/MM metadynamics. In September 2022, Hansen returned to Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as Assistant Professor in the Synthetic Organic Chemistry & Catalysis group led by Prof. Eelco Ruijter.

Hansen's research lies at the intersection of synthetic and computational organic chemistry, aiming to understand chemical reactivity at the molecular level. His primary interests include SN2 versus E2 competitions, solvation effects, glycosylation reactions, organocatalysis, and carbohydrate synthesis. Notable publications comprise "Origin of the α-Effect in SN2 Reactions" (2021), "How Solvation Influences the SN2 versus E2 Competition" (2021), "Stability of Alkyl Carbocations" (2022), "Direct Glycosylation of N,N-Dimethyl Amino Sugars via Halogen/Hydrogen Bonding Interactions" (2025), "Hypervalent Chalcogenonium Organocatalysis for the Direct Stereoselective Synthesis of Deoxyglycosides from Hemiacetals" (2026), and "Understanding the SN2 Versus E2 Competition" (2025). With over 2,000 citations on Google Scholar, his contributions have significantly impacted the field. Hansen has been honored with the KNCV Backer Prize for the Best Organic Chemistry PhD Thesis in the Netherlands (2021), the KHMW AkzoNobel Graduation Prize for Chemistry (2016), and the Best Chemistry Transfer Student award from Leiden University (2015). Recently, he secured the NWO ENW-M1 grant for his project "Steering Sweet Synthesis" (2025) and the Bètadecanen Grant for outreach activities (2024).