Bernard Feringa

University of Groningen

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.