Junior Scientists Participation Fellowships (JSP Program)


- The Scientific Leaders of the next Generation!

Thanks to the Division of Fundamental Research of the Swiss Chemical Society and the support of the industrial participants and the support from scientific journals, every year 12-16 young promising European scientists (including Russia and Israel) at the beginning of their academic careers have received a fellowship to participate to the Bürgenstock conference. The intense interactions between junior and senior scientists have inspired much frontier research and are at the origin of many fruitful scientific collaborations.

Special sections in Synthesis form Thieme provide attractive platforms for the JSP participants to showcase their research:

The JSP fellows will stay at the Hotel Weisses Rössli, which is very close to the conference venue (Seehotel Waldstätterhof).

The Organizing Committee asks leading scientists, former Presidents and invited speakers of the ‘Bürgenstock Conferences’, as well as Presidents of European Chemical Societies nominate candidates at the beginning of their career. Eligible candidates:

  • PhD degree obtained in 2017 or later at the application deadline with at least one publication as (co)-corresponding author.
  • Candidates with a PhD degree obtained before 2017 can be considered in exceptional cases due to career breaks. For example, in case of a parental care leave, two years are automatically added to the eligible PhD defense year.
  • Assistant professor position or equivalent, not having yet a senior tenured position.

The long list of candidates, complemented by spontaneous applications of young researchers, is reviewed by the President and the Organizing Committee. They select the best junior scientists for support based on scientific excellence and diversity.

Since 2019, to promote early world-wide interactions among leading scientists of the next generation, up to two fellowships each will be attributed to young scientists from North/South America and Asia/Oceania/Africa respectively. Nominations will made exclusively by the Bürgenstock Committee.

The application for a JSP fellowship must include:

  • a CV, indicating the official date on which the PhD degree was obtained
  • a publication list with publications as corresponding author clearly highlighted and
  • at least one letter of reference in case of spontaneous application

It should be sent to Jérôme Waser from the Organizing Committee (jerome.waser@epfl.ch)
Deadline: November 15th 2025.

Industrial JSP
Since 2021, in addition to the academic JSPs, three junior industrial scientists in their first 12 years of career are selected by the organization committee as industrial JSP fellows (without financial support).

Past JSP Participants

Academic JSP
Prof. Midori Akiyama, RIKEN CEMS (JP)
Prof. Lena Barra, University of Konstanz (DE)
Prof. Mate Bezdek, ETHZ (CH)
Dr. Giacomo Crisenza, Manchester University (UK)
Prof. Murielle Delley, University of Basel (CH)
Prof. Nina Hartrampf, University of Zurich (CH)
Prof. Xiaoqiang Huang, Nanjing University (CN)
Prof. C. Rose Kennedy, University of Rochester (US)
Prof. Daniele Mazzarella, University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (IT)
Dr. Jola Pospech, Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (DE)
Prof. Guanqi Qiu, Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung (DE)
Dr. Peter Stacko, University of Zurich (CH)
Prof. Martin Tomanik, NYU (US)
Prof. Johannes Walker, University of Göttingen (DE)

Industrial JSP
Dr. Elodie Brun, dsm-firmenich (CH)
Dr. Gregor Cremosnik, Novartis (CH)
Dr. Carla Obradors, Johnson&Johnson (BE)

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