Dr. Ina Vollmer is an associate professor, leading the Mechano-Catalysis Group within the Institute for Sustainable Chemistry at Utrecht University (UU). She is looking for pathways to recycle plastics to chemicals, particularly using catalysis. She researchers mechano-catalytic pathways to facilitate low temperature conversion of polymers with a higher selectivity. Dr. Vollmer studied chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (graduation 2015). In her doctorate, she researched activity descriptors for the aromatization reaction of methane over metal supported on zeolite catalysts with Prof. Freek Kapteijn and Prof. Jorge Gascon (graduated 2019). After two years of postdoc at UU, Dr. Vollmer was appointed as a tenure track assistant professor in 2021 and associate professor in 2026.
Education:
11/03/2019 PhD in Chemical Engineering/Heterogeneous Catalysis, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, supervisors: Prof. Freek Kapteijn and Prof. Jorge Gascon
2015 Master in Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States
2013 Bachelor in Process Engineering, Hamburg University of Applied Science, Germany
Current position:
2026 - now Associate professor, Department of Chemistry, Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry, Utrecht University (UU), The Netherlands
Previous position:
2021 – 2025 Assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry, UU, The Netherlands
2024 3-month research stay in the polymer chemistry group of Prof. Stefan Mecking at Konstanz University
2019 – 2021 Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Chemistry, UU, The Netherlands
Successful independently acquired research grants:
2024, Demonstrator grant of the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (160k Euro)
2024, European Research Council Starting Grant (ERC StG) (1.625 million Euro)
2024, National Growth Fund Circular plastics NL grant (660k Euro)
2023, Private partnership subsidy (PPS) funding with Carboliq GmbH as industrial partner, received from TKI Groene Chemie & Circulariteit (108k Euro)
2022, Open competition XS grant by NWO for groundbreaking high-risk ideas (50k Euro).
2021, Veni grant for conducting independent research (250k Euro) by the Talent program of NWO.
Prizes:
- 2025, Thieme Chemistry Journals Awardee
Invited lectures:
- 2025, Pacifichem, Honolulu, Hawaii
- 2025, keynote, SmartProSys symposium, Magdeburg, Germany
- 2025, INCOME conference, Berlin, Germany
- 2025, European Polymer Congress, Groningen, The Netherlands
- 2025, session plenary, International Conference on Sustainable Chemistry for Net Zero, St. Andrews, UK
- 2025, plenary, Mech’cheM conference, Montpellier, France
- 2024, CHAINS conference, Veldhoven, The Netherlands
- 2024, German Chemical Society (GDCh) Makro, Dresden, Germany
- 2024, Cell Press Symposium, Cardiff, United Kingdom
- 2024, Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Sustainable Materials, Düsseldorf, Germany
- 2024, GDCh lecture series at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
- 2024, MPI for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Magdeburg, Germany
- 2023, American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall Meeting, San Diego, USA
- 2023, Celebration of the Stratingh Institute at University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
- 2023, Center for Zeolites and Nanoporous Materials of the French National Center for Research (CNRS) upon invitation of Prof. Svetlana Mintova, Caen, France
- 2023, American Chemical Society Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, online
- 2022, ACHEMA, Frankfurt, Germany
- 2022, European Industry and Energy Summit, Amsterdam, Germany
- 2022, University of Cambridge, online
- 2022, Advanced Research Chemical Building Blocks Consortium (ARC CBBC) annual symposium, Groningen, The Netherlands
2022, Technical University of Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
2021, ACS Spring Meeting, San Diego, USA
Invited webinars and outreach:
- 2026, newspaper article in NEMO Kennislink (Dutch), “Plastic duurzamer (her)gebruiken”
- 2026, newspaper article in Epsiloon (French), “Le grand tour de la mécanochimie”
- 2025, newspaper article in Het algemeen dagblad (Dutch) “Weg met al dat plastic – maar hoe dan?”
- 2024, newspaper article in Het financieele dagblad (Dutch) “We kunnen plastic veel duurzamer recyclen, niet met hitte maar met kracht”
- 2024, newspaper article in Het Parool (Dutch) “Nieuwe methode voor recyclen plastic biedt hoop: ‘We doen het met behulp vaneen kogelmolen”
- 2024, CMCC Mechanochemistry discussion series, online
- 2023, lab tour organization at UU open days
- 2022 & 2023, activities around sustainable polymers at the Weekend van de Wetenschap
- 2022, talk at Studium Generale of UU, “Is a world without plastics possible?”
- 2021, article on UU website, “Where has all the plastic gone?”
- 2021, “Is chemical recycling of plastics the future”, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
- 2021, “Chemical Recycling”, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
- 2021, “Turning the tide on plastic”, The Conference Board
- 2022-now, supervision of Utalent students
Editorial activity, moderating, organization of symposia:
2025, member of advisory board for Chem Circularity
2024, member of editorial board for Applied Catalysis A: General
2023, guest editor themed issue “Plastic conversion”, Catalysis Science & Technology and Polymers
2021, moderator of panel discussion on chemical recycling of plastics during the 10th Anniversary Symposium of the Catalysis Science & Technology journal.
2021, organizer of focus session on recycling of plastics supported by ARC CBBC at the CHAINS conference in the Netherlands.
Peer review for ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Angewandte Chemie, Applied Catalysis A and B, Chemical Engineering Journal, Energies, Journal of Catalysis, Nature Chemistry, Nature Communications, ACS Catalysis, Separation and Purification Technology, and Applied Sciences. I also review proposals for the Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) Moonshot program, the Stanford Synchroton Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) and the German Exploratory Research Space Seed Fund. I was also involved in the topic committee of the International Catalysis Conference (ICC).
Teaching:
2024, together with another PI, I developed and teach a MSc. level Polymer Chemistry course
2023, together with other PIs I developed a new MSc. program at UU on sustainable and circular chemistry which started in 2024, in which we promote interdisciplinary research.
Since 2022, together with three other PIs, we developed a BSc. level polymer chemistry course at UU of which I am the coordinator.
Since 2021, I teach electron spin resonance spectroscopy in the BSc. level course “Spectroscopy of Molecules and Materials” at UU
2021-2024, together with another PI, we developed and taught a BSc. level sustainable chemistry course for the University College Utrecht (UCU)
Committee work:
2025, Veni proposal evaluation for NWO
Since 2023, member of the Faculty of Science council of UU
Since 2022, board member of the Institute for Sustainable and Circular Chemistry (ISCC) at UU
2022-2023, member of the committee assessing and promoting the societal, economic and judicial impact of research at UU
2021-2026 member of the ARC CBBC consortium