Dr. Dirk Schweitzer Email & Phone Number

Devens, Massachusetts, US

• https://impact-nano.com/ in Devens, MA.
• I am employee # 3, after the two co-founders, who are industry veterans, in a local chemistry contract manufacturing organization (CMO) start-up company.
• My first task was to set-up our synthetic and analytical research laboratories from scratch, starting from deciding where to put the electrical outlets in the two rooms we have. We have now a very well equipped R&D lab.
• I am now doing Green Chemistry R&D, across the Periodic Table of the Elements, in order to provide our customers, many of them in the electronics industry, with high purity fine chemicals, such as.
• Many of the synthetic targets are highly moisture and/or oxygen sensitive coordination complexes, requiring Schlenk line and glove box techniques. See, for example https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2023212652
• Conduct product syntheses routinely on a 20 L scale.

• Reason for leaving: loss of sales due to the competing technology D2T2, the trade war with China & COVID19 forced Zink to put R&D on hold.
• Formulated thermochromic & functional mixtures/layers to replace individual components, to improve the waterborne coating quality (%solids, static+dynamic surface tension, viscosity=f(composition,T,shear rate)) &.
• Carefully analyzed coating defects to understand their root cause.
• Carefully analyzed the optical effects of specific layers & the melting point of dye layers as a function of their composition to propose a Zink media with an expected improved color gamut.
• Developed a Zink media activated by IR Laser light.
• Identified suitable replacement materials when a component did not perform adequately or was discontinued by its manufacturer (which were often materials from the Cosmetics industry).

Woburn, Massachusetts, US

• Reason for leaving: Metabolix closed its bio-polymers business in 2016-07.https://web.archive.org/web/20160821045351/http://ir.metabolix.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=980670
• Invented and experimentally optimized synthetic routes to produce bio-based commodity & fine chemicals (acrylates, n-butanol, GBL) from bacterial energy storage polymers (PHAs). The project to synthesize GBL from PHA.
• Supervised work performed at the US Department of Agriculture and at a contract research organization.
• Supervised an in-house analytical scientist and a contract scientist.
• Volunteered for the safety team.
• Optimized the isolation of bacterial energy storage polymers from the fermentation broth. PHAs are biobased and biodegradable plastics.

• Reason for leaving: Draths was acquired as an asset purchase in 2011-10.http://www.greencarcongress.com/2011/11/amyris-20111101.html
• Invented and as a team optimized and scaled-up a commercially viable route from the fermentation product cis-cis muconic acid (serving as a platform chemical) to bio-based chemicals, such as purified terephthalic acid.
• Developed novel heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic processes.
• Trained, guided, and supervised BS/MS scientists, technicians, and interns.
• Volunteered for the safety team.
• Analytical characterization using NMR, HPLC, GC-MS, IR.

Honolulu, HI - Hawaii, US

• Professional scientific consultation service.
• Translation service from German to English.

• Research Advisor: Prof. Paul Helquist.(I did my work at the Walther Cancer Research Center, which is located at the University of Notre Dame, IN.)
• Developed a novel synthetic route to the macrocyclic marine natural product iejimalide B, and completed its total synthesis, see A. This work is discussed by Nicolaou and Chen in "Classics in Total Synthesis III".
• Discovered an efficient Pt-catalyzed hydroboration of complex molecules.
• Synthesized a library of iejimalide analogues to probe a structure-activity relationship (SAR) of its anti-cancer activity, see C.
• Synthesized an iejimalide-fluorophore/coumarin conjugate which allowed a cellular localization study, see C.
• Isolated iejimalides A-D (sum ~ 0.003 mass %) by flash chromatography and HPLC from the crude tunicate acetone extract.

Atlanta, GA, US

• Research Advisor: Prof. Luigi Marzilli.
• Developed selective nucleoside base alkylation methods. Performed their selective phosphorylation. These compounds were then used by other group members in NMR studies.
• Synthesized linked fluorophore/coumarin-amine molecules enabling the detection of trace quantities of metal ions.
• Managed database of porphyrins and phthalocyanines that were submitted for biological anti-viral activity testing.
• Trained, guided, and supervised undergraduate research students and new graduate students.
• Analytical characterization using NMR, UV/Vis spectroscopy, biological activity. Interpretation of biological data.

Seattle, WA, US

• Title of Ph.D. Thesis: "Biomimetic Models of the Active Site of the Metalloenzyme Nitrile Hydratase." Research Advisor: Prof. Julie Kovacs.
• Synthesized model compounds of the active site of the metalloenzyme nitrile hydratase to study its enzymatic mechanism. These were Fe and Co complexes in a mixed nitrogen/sulfur coordination sphere. Most complexes were.
• Synthesized air and moisture sensitive inorganic metal-ligand coordination compounds in the glove box.
• Designed new ligands and developed new synthetic routes to target structures.
• Trained, guided, and supervised undergraduate research students and new graduate students.
• Taught organic and introductory classes and laboratories.

Jena, Germany, DE

• Research Advisor: Prof. Rolf Hilgenfeld.(I did my work at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMB), which has since been incorporated into the Leibniz Institute on Aging – Fritz Lipmann Institute.)
• Crystallized thermolysin mutants.
• Collected in-house data, and data at the synchrotron near Trieste, Italy.
• Solved and refined protein crystal structures.
• Analytical characterization using protein crystallography.
• My work was reported as a poster: http://tinyurl.com/Dirk-IMB (1 MB.pdf).

Austin, TX, US

• Title of Diplomarbeit: "Synthesis of Water-Soluble Rubyrin."Research Advisors: Prof. Jonathan Sessler and Prof. Ernst-Gottfried Jäger. (The research for my German Diplom-Chemiker (German M.S. in Chemistry) degree was.
• Designed and synthesized novel pyrroles, oligopyrroles, and expanded porphyrins, such as the rubyrin macrocycle.
• Analytical characterization using NMR, UV/Vis spectroscopy.

Jena, Thüringen, DE

• Research Advisor: Prof. Ernst-Gottfried Jäger.
• Synthesized and characterized macrocyclic compounds and their metal complexes (Jäger-type ligands and complexes).

Jena, Thüringen, DE

• Research Advisor: Prof. Udo Gräfe. (I did my work at the Hans Knöll Institute (HKI), which has since been incorporated into the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology.)
• Isolated and purified natural products from tomatoes using HPLC.

Ph.D., Chemistry

Diplom-Chemiker (German M.S. In Chemistry), Chemistry

Abitur

Education record