Tom Willhammar is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Stockholm University. He received a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering with focus on Materials and Polymer Chemistry from Lund University in 2008. His PhD was earned from Stockholm University in 2013 in the field of Structural Chemistry. After a Postdoc at EMAT, Antwerp, Belgium, he is now a group leader at Stockholm University and the Director of the Electron Microscopy Center (EMC).

Visit our group website: www.willhammargroup.com

My research circles around electron microscopy, electron diffraction and its applications on structural characterization of materials.

Keys to an increased understanding of the properties of new materials are embedded in their structures, ranging from the mesoscale down to the atomic level. Electron microscopy provides important tools to reveal such information. My main research interest comprises methods such as 3D electron diffraction, scanning electron diffraction as well as imaging from the mesoscale down to the atomic scale. I work on a wide range of material systems with recent focus including nanoporous materials, e.g. zeolites and MOFs as well as biopolymers.

My main research project at the moment are:

• "Guest-templated and shape-selective plant-based metal-organic frameworks pioneered by
  advanced electron microscopy" funded by the Swedish Research Council (2026-2029)
  
• "Selective removal of water contaminants of emerging concern through in-situ molecular mechanistic understanding" funded by Formas (2023-2026)
• "Six-Dimensional Tensor-Based Scanning Electron Diffraction: Revealing Nature´s Hierarchical Structures at the Nanoscale" funded by Carl Trygger Foundation (2026-2028)
• "Adsorption of emerging water contaminants using defect engineering in plant-based metal-organic frameworks" WISE (2024-2027)

Group Members

• Enci Zhang, Postdoc
  
• Evgeniia Ikonnikova, PhD Student
• Yan Zheng, PhD Student
• Tine Kalac, PhD Student

Alumni:

• Mathias Nero, PhD Student
• Yu Xia, Postdoc
• Elina Kapaca, Postdoc Researcher
• Sofía García Pascual, Master student
• Tom Vaillant, Master student

I am lecturing the following courses:

• Basic Chemistry (KZ2012), Bachelor level
• Electron Microscopy for Materials Characterization (KZ7016), Advanced level
• Electron Crystallography (KZ41010), PhD level
• Advanced transmission electron microscopy (KZ41011). PhD level

Selected recent publications:

Chiral Hierarchies at the Nanoscale Revealed by Three-Dimensional Scanning Electron Diffraction
Nero, Mathias; Carlsen, Mads; Liebi, Marianne; Willhammar, Tom*
ACS Nano 2025, 19, 40, 35777–35786
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c12291

A stable zeolite with atomically ordered and interconnected mesopore channel
Lu, Peng; Xu, Jiaoyan; Sun, Yiqing; Guillet-Nicolas, Rémy; Willhammar, Tom; Fahda, Mohammad; Dib, Eddy; Wang, Bo; Qin, Zhengxing; Xu, Hongyi; Cho, Jung; Liu, Zhaopeng; Yu, Haijun; Yang, Xiaobo; Lang, Qiaolin; Mintova, Svetlana; Zou, Xiaodong; Valtchev, Valentin
Nature 2024, 636, 368–373
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08206-1

Hierarchical assembly of tubular frameworks driven by covalent and coordinate bonding
Xu, Hai-Sen; Luo, Yi; Li, Runlai; Jiao, Wen-Na; Huang, Si; Zhu, Wei-De; Wang, Hongfei; Chen, Ting; Nero, Mathias; Chen, Fangzheng; Gao, Qiang; Li, Xing; Pan, Mei; Willhammar, Tom*; Loh, Kian Ping*; Su, Cheng-Yong*
Nature Synthesis 2024
DOI: 10.1038/s44160-024-00632-3

The Nanoscale Ordering of Cellulose in a Hierarchically Structured Hybrid Material Revealed Using Scanning Electron Diffraction
Nero, Mathias; Ali, Hasan; Li, Yuanyuan; Willhammar, Tom*
Small Methods 2024, 8, 2301304
DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202301304

Removal of pharmaceutical pollutants from effluent by a plant-based metal-organic framework
Svensson Grape, Erik; Chacón-García, Antonio J.; Rojas, Sara; Pérez, Yolanda; Jaworski, Aleksander; Nero, Mathias; Åhlén, Michelle; Martínez-Ahumada, Eva; Galetsa Feindt, Athina E.; Pepillo, Mathieu; Narongin-Fujikawa, Mayumi; Ibarra, Ilich A.; Cheung, Ocean; Baresel, Christian; Willhammar, Tom*; Horcajada, Patricia*; Inge, A. Ken*
Nature Water 2023
DOI: 10.1038/s44221-023-00070-z

Single-walled zeolitic nanotubes
Korde, Akshay; Min, Byunghyun; Kapaca, Elina; Knio, Omar; Nezam, Iman; Wang, Ziyuan; Leisen, Johannes; Yin, Xinyang; Zhang, Xueyi; Sholl, David S.; Zou, Xiaodong; Willhammar, Tom*; Jones, Christopher W.*; Nair, Sankar*
Science 2022, 375, 6576, 62–66
DOI: 10.1126/science.abg3793

Structure of the active pharmaceutical ingredient bismuth subsalicylate
Erik Svensson Grape, Victoria Rooth, Mathias Nero, Tom Willhammar*, A Ken Inge*
Nature Communications 2022, 13, 1984
DOI: 1038/s41467-022-29566-0

Local crystallinity in twisted cellulose nanofibers
Willhammar, Tom*; Daicho, Kazuho; Johnstone, Duncan N.; Kobayashi, Kayoko; Liu, Yingxin; Midgley, Paul A.; Bergström, Lennart; Saito, Tsuguyuki*
ACS Nano 2021, 15, 2, 2730–2737
DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.0c08295

A priori control of zeolite phase competition and intergrowth with high-throughput simulations
Schwalbe-Koda, Daniel; Kwon, Soonhyoung; Paris, Cecilia; Bello-Jurado, Estefania; Jensen, Zach; Olivetti, Elsa; Willhammar, Tom; Corma, Avelino; Román-Leshkov, Yuriy; Moliner, Manuel; Gómez-Bombarelli, Rafael
Science 2021, 374, 6565, 308-315
DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3350

Synthesis and Structure of a 22× 12× 12 Extra-Large Pore Zeolite ITQ-56 Determined by 3D Electron Diffraction
Kapaca, Elina; Jiang, Jiuxing; Cho, Jung; Jordá, José L; Díaz-Cabañas, María J; Zou, Xiaodong; Corma, Avelino; Willhammar, Tom*
Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021, 143, 23, 8713-8719
DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c02654

Introducing the crystalline phase of dicalcium phosphate monohydrate
Lu, Bing-Qiang‡; Willhammar, Tom‡; Sun, Ben-Ben; Hedin, Niklas; Gale, Julian D; Gebauer, Denis
Nature Communications 2020, 11 (1), 1-8
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15333

Please visit our Google Scholar for a complete list of publications.

If you are interested in a Postdoc do not hesitate to contact me.