# Bernard Feringa

> Bernard "Ben" Feringa is a Dutch synthetic organic chemist and the Jacobus van 't Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences at the University of Groningen. He shared the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Sir Fraser Stoddart for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. Feringa's signature achievement is the unidirectional light-driven molecular motor: in 1999 he built a molecule whose halves rotate continuously in a single direction when powered by light, the first true rotary motor at the molecular scale. He famously demonstrated the principle by using arrays of such motors to spin a glass rod many thousands of times larger than the motors themselves, and by constructing a four-wheel-drive "nanocar" propelled across a surface by molecular wheels. Beyond molecular motors, Feringa is a leader in asymmetric catalysis, molecular switches, and photopharmacology, a field that seeks drugs whose activity can be turned on and off with light to localize their effect and reduce side effects. His group's work spans responsive smart materials, self-assembling systems, and catalysts for the clean synthesis of complex molecules. With one of the most prolific publication and citation records in chemistry, Feringa has trained a large cohort of researchers and maintains close ties to the Dutch chemical industry and to companies developing responsive materials and light-controlled therapeutics.

*Source: [https://selltoscientists.com/researchers/bernard-feringa/](https://selltoscientists.com/researchers/bernard-feringa/)*

**Institution:** University of Groningen
**Field:** Molecular Machines
**H-index:** 14
**Publications:** 241
**Grants:** 50
**Patents:** 30
**ORCID:** `0000-0003-0588-8435`

## Industry collaborations

- Long-standing research collaboration with Royal DSM and the Dutch chemical industry
- Molecular-switch and photopharmacology IP licensed toward responsive materials and light-controlled therapeutics ventures
- Catalysis and chirality methods applied in fine-chemical and pharmaceutical synthesis

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