Hermen Overkleeft was born in Apeldoorn on the 12th of April, 1969. He studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam. After receiving his masters degree he became a graduate student in the group of Professor Pandit, where he worked on his thesis ‘Azasugars. Synthesis and evaluation as glycosidase inhibitors.’ After receiving his PhD degree in March 1997, he accepted a postdoc position in the group of Professor Van Boom, and focused his research on the implementation of ring-closing metathesis on carbohydrate templates to generate functionalized carba- and heterocycles. In 1999, he went to Harvard Medical School as a postdoc in the group of Professor Hidde Ploegh. In the two following years, he studied the ubiquitin-proteasome degradation pathway. In July 2001, he was appointed as full professor of Bioorganic Synthesis at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, where he became the successor of Professor Van Boom.
Research interests:bioorganic chemistry, immunology, glycobiology, organic synthesis.