Floris Rutjes


Floris Rutjes is a Dutch organic chemist and academic. He is a professor and Chair of Synthetic Organic Chemistry at Radboud University. Rutjes has served as President of the European Chemical Society and of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society, and his research focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, catalysis, and sustainable chemical processes.

Early life and education

Rutjes obtained his MSc in organic chemistry from the University of Amsterdam in 1988. He completed his PhD at the same institution in 1993. From 1993 to 1995, he carried out postdoctoral research with K. C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

Academic career

In 1995, Rutjes joined the University of Amsterdam as an assistant professor. He was appointed part-time professor of combinatorial synthesis in 1999 and later became full professor and Chair of Synthetic Organic Chemistry at Radboud University in the same year.
Rutjes served as President of the European Chemical Society from 2021 to 2024 and as President of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society from 2016 to 2019.
He served as Director of the Institute for Molecules and Materials at Radboud University from 2019 to 2025.

Research

Rutjes’s research is in synthetic organic chemistry, with a focus on the development of catalytic and sustainable synthetic methodologies. His work addresses the synthesis of complex organic molecules and the design of efficient and selective catalytic processes, including multistep synthesis in continuous-flow systems.
A significant component of his research involves the design and synthesis of biologically active small molecules, with applications in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology. In this context, Rutjes has worked on click-chemistry–based approaches and related methods for bioorthogonal conjugation, enabling the selective chemical modification of biomolecules.
Rutjes has also contributed to research on continuous-flow synthesis using microreactor systems, particularly for catalytic and multistep transformations, with the aim of improving reaction control, efficiency, and scalability compared with traditional batch processes.

Awards and honours