Luca Condrau was born in 2001 in St-Imier, Switzerland. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Fribourg in 2022, with a thesis under Professor Christian Bochet on stereoselective photochemical isomerization.
He then joined KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm for a Master of Science in Molecular Science and Engineering, completed in 2025. There, he worked as a student research assistant under Professor Markus D. Kärkäs on photoredox-catalyzed C–H functionalization for noncanonical amino acid synthesis, and completed his Master’s thesis as a visiting master student in Professor Dmitry Katayev’s group at the University of Bern, developing functional group transfer reagents for small-molecule functionalization. After an internship at Lonza and at F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Process Chemistry & Catalysis, Luca joined the Katayev group in September 2026 as a PhD student, where he is currently investigating novel nitrating reagents.
Outside the lab, Luca swaps reaction flasks for mountain trails, hiking up, snowboarding down, and occasionally hitting a tennis ball or a guitar chord along the way.
Lofoten Islands (Norway) – 2024