Our Team
Eugenio Rossi
Eugenio Rossi is an Italian medical doctor and psychiatry resident with clinical experience in inpatient and outpatient care, alongside international research experience in psychedelic science. His work focuses on the phenomenology of psychedelic experiences, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, naturalistic substance-use research, and evidence synthesis in psychiatry. He is currently a psychiatry resident at the University of Genoa / San Martino Hospital Scientific Institute and served as Secretary General of SIMEPSI, the Italian Society for Psychedelic Medicine until 2025. Over the years he has also collaborated with various European research centres and has presented research at several international conferences.
Dr. Yuno Rolfes
JD Rolfes (they/them) studied chemistry at the University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen, and Harvard University before completing their Dr. rer. nat. at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, first in the Synthesis Department with Tobias Ritter, then in the Molecular Theory and Spectroscopy Department with Frank Neese and Maurice van Gastel. Their mainly computational doctoral research on chemical trends in transition metal complexes was completed in 2021. JD is currently working on a second doctorate (Dr. phil.) at the intersection of philosophy of science and social epistemology. JD founded the AHI in early 2020 and has been leading it as Managing Director since. They are also President of the Akademie zur Förderung physiochemischer Nachhaltigkeit e.V., Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of Rolfes SDG Academy, and co-founder, Technical Administrator & Editor of Vector Press. At the turn of 2022/23, JD was a guest researcher at the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) in Kampala, Uganda, and in 2024 at the University of Helsinki, Finland. JD currently conducts research in computational chemistry, climate justice, and sociology, including through active participation in European research networks in the natural and social sciences.
Dr. habil. Martin Prechtl
Martin Prechtl (he/him) performs research at the Centro de Química Estrutural (CQE) and at the Centro de Recursos Naturais e Ambiente (CERENA) at the Instituto Superior Técnico of the University of Lisbon (IST-UL, Portugal) and at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa (ISEL). He completed the examination for the Portuguese Habilitation at the IST-UL in 2021 and received the “Agregação” for Chemistry (Título do Agregado). Previously he has been already an Associated Researcher at the CQE-IST-UL since 2017. Moreover, he acted as a Professor of Chemistry at Roskilde University (2018-2020, Denmark, Master course discontinued in 2020) and, he has been working as Independent Group Leader at the University of Cologne (Germany) from 2010 to 2020. There he obtained the German Habilitation in 2015 and he holds the Venia Legendi in Inorganic Chemistry. Moreover, among other institutions, he studied and performed research at the Univ. Wuppertal, Univ. São Paulo and Mülheim/Ruhr (MPI KoFo) und finished the doctoral studies in chemistry in 2007. He has many years of supervising/mentoring and teaching experience on undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate level. His main research interests cover the areas of sustainability, green chemistry, catalysis, energy storage and renewable energies. In addition, he is experienced as editor for international publishing houses and as consultant for sustainability, catalysis and renewable energy technologies. More specifically, Martin works on the development of molecular and nanoscale catalyst materials for application in organic synthesis and hydrogen/energy storage, with a focus on selective hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions. This includes reactions in water, ionic liquids and multi-phase solvent systems. He gave numerous oral presentations (>140) at major (inter)national conferences and at prestigious research institutes and published >80 articles and book chapters. He received several awards and titles, among those the NRW Scientist Returnee Award 2009, the Ernst-Haage-Prize 2014 (Max-Planck Society), FRSC (2016), Heisenbergian (2015) and Humboldtian (2007). He is listed on the Stanford/Elsevier Global Top 2% Scientists Ranking.
Dr. Simon Niemann
Simon Niemann (he/him) is a trained theater facilitator and studied theater and cultural studies. He has been working as a freelance theater and art mediator since 2010 and realizes various directing and performance projects as well as art projects with children, young people and adults. In this capacity, he worked at the Theater für Niedersachsen during the 2015/16 season, followed by three years at the Stadttheater Osnabrück and one year at the Theater Münster in 2023. In 2021, he was invited to the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome as an internship fellow and completed a research residency at the School of the Art Institute Chicago in 2022. From 2019 to 2022, Simon Niemann was a PhD student at the Research Training Group "Aesthetic Practice" at the University of Hildesheim. His research focuses on the "mediation of performance art as an aesthetic practice". He currently works as a cultural mediator at the Museumsquartier Osnabrück, holds teaching positions at various universities and colleges, and continues to work freelance as a director and as a theater and art educator.
Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Anna Falk
Dr. Anna Falk (she/her) studied chemistry at the University of Cologne, where she completed her doctorate in organic chemistry with distinction (summa cum laude) in 2014, receiving both the Liebrecht Award and the Kurt Alder Award for best thesis. Supported by a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she subsequently worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh, publishing in international peer-reviewed journals. She then transitioned into industry, bringing over nine years of experience in product development, regulatory affairs, and operations across UK & EU health and wellness startups, spanning cosmetics, supplements, and beyond. Since 2024, she is the founder of WAM – We Are More, a plant-based active nutrition brand based in Barcelona. She additionally holds a certification as Sports Nutritionist from the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).
Prof. Dr. Jan Deska
Jan Deska studied chemistry at the Saarland University (Germany), from where he obtained his PhD in 2007 under the supervision of Uli Kazmaier. After postdoctoral visits in the research groups of Goverdhan Mehta at the IISc Bangalore (India), and Jan-Erling Bäckvall at Stockholm University (Sweden), he started his independent academic career in 2010 as Liebig junior group leader at the University of Cologne (Germany). Following a six-year appointment as associate professor at Aalto University (Finland) from 2015-2021, Jan currently holds the professorship in Synthetic Chemistry at the University of Helsinki in Finland. His core scientific interests surround the diverse aspects of organic synthesis and the stereoselective preparation of complex molecular building blocks as key intermediates for bioactive natural products and pharmaceuticals. Addressing the challenges of sustainable chemical production, his team develops new solutions in an interdisciplinary fashion combining modern catalysis, protein engineering and synthetic biology.
Dr. Daniel Pape