Lisanne Sellies

Lisanne Sellies is a postdoctoral researcher at IBM Research Europe – Zurich in the Atom and Molecule Manipulation Group of Leo Gross. She obtained her master’s in physical chemistry at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in 2020. During her studies she contributed to the development of new approaches to detect dilute compounds in complex mixtures with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR).

At the end of her studies, she did a research project in the group of Jascha Repp at the University of Regensburg, after which she started her PhD in the same group at the end of 2020. Her PhD research focused on single molecules on insulating surfaces. These molecules can be imaged with atomic-scale spatial resolution using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). By steering single electrons between the AFM tip and the molecule under study, different molecular properties can be examined. During her PhD, Lisanne expanded the scope of properties that can be measured in this way by developing new methods. She demonstrated that electron spin resonance signals of a single molecule can be measured using AFM. In addition, she set up a technique to access the relative energies of ground and excited electronic states of a single molecule and to prepare the molecule in defined excited states.

She completed her PhD in physics in 2024, after which she started as a postdoctoral researcher at IBM. During her postdoc at IBM Research Europe – Zurich, she plans to use the techniques she pioneered to investigate on-surface chemistry induced by the AFM tip.

Lisanne received the Gustav Hertz Prize 2025 from the DGP 'For the development of a new method that for the first time measured electron spin resonance with a scanning force microscope on individual molecules.'