Fabien Cougnon

Fabien Cougnon is an Associate Professor in Synthetic Nanochemistry at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, affiliated with the NanoScience Centre and the Department of Chemistry. His academic journey includes a PhD from the University of Cambridge, postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh and MIT, and an independent career supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione fellowship. His research focuses on Molecular Nanotopology, exploring how molecular knotting influences material properties and behaviors.

Education: PhD in Organic Chemistry (University of Cambridge, 2006), postdoctoral training under Prof. David Leigh and Prof. Elizabeth Nolan. Career milestones: Ambizione fellowship (2015), move to Jyväskylä in 2021.

Research Interests: Synthesizing knotted molecules, dynamic covalent chemistry, and topology-driven material design. Key projects include investigating chiral effects in peptides and knotting ligands for metal coordination control.

• Awards: EPSRC Doctoral Prize, Swiss National Science Foundation Ambizione Fellowship
• Lab Members: Includes postdocs (Nadège You, Louise Miton) and doctoral researchers (Alice Gable, Dimitri Delcourt).
• Group Focus: Cougnon Group studies functional molecules for healthcare and sustainable applications, leveraging topology to mimic protein structures.