Gijs van der Marel was born on April 3th 1952 in Leiden. Gijs studied chemistry at the university of Leiden, where he received his masters degree in the group of van Boom/ Havinga (1977). He was asked to become a graduate student in the same group. His thesis (1982) describes the large scale synthesis of DNA/RNA fragments in solution and on solid support (including the discovery of Z-DNA). In 1983 he received the royal Shell travel award. Because of his efforts Gijs was asked to become a member of the scientific staff and is presently the right hand of professor Overkleeft. In January 2005, he was appointed Professor of Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Currently he is Head of Education of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry. Research interests: Synthesis, structure and biological properties of biomolecules and derivatives, such as: Polyamide Nucleic acid Analogues, DNA, RNA, Carbohydrates, Peptides, Nucleoside antibiotics, Sugar Amino Acids, Enzyme inhibitors, Drug targetting devices, spiroketals and other heterocyclic compounds and many more. Ring closing metathesis, Solid Phase Chemistry and Combinatorial chemistry. Other interests: Listening to the Dead Kennedies while reading the newspaper, music, poetry, reading modern literature, thinking that Louis Paul Boon should have received the Nobel prize in literature.