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Dr. James Eills
Dr. James Eills
Group Leader
Building 05.8v / Room 3029
+49 2461/61-3259
<j.eills@fz-juelich.de>
James was born in 1993 in London, spent five years of his childhood in New Jersey (USA), and from the age of 10 grew up in an English village north of Brighton. He studied Chemistry at the University of Southampton from 2011 to 2015, completing his Master’s research at the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Prof. Alex Pines and Prof. Dmitry Budker, where he investigated molecular parity violation using optically polarized xenon.
He returned to Southampton to pursue a PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Malcolm Levitt, focusing on hyperpolarization techniques and microfluidic NMR. In 2018, he joined Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Matter-AntiMatter section of the Helmholtz Institute, where he developed zero- and ultralow-field NMR methods.
In 2021, he moved to the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona on a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, developing noninvasive metabolic imaging techniques in organ-on-a-chip devices for personalized medicine. Following a six-month stay at NVision Imaging Technologies in Ulm, he went on to establish the Hyperpolarization Methods Lab at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
Curriculum Vitae
Academic Appointments
Since 2024 Helmholtz Young Investigator Group Leader, Forschungszentrum Jülich
2022-2024 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, Barcelona
2021-2022 Research Consultant, NVision Imaging Technologies, Ulm
2018-2021 Postdoc, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz & Helmholtz-Institut Mainz
Education and Training
2015-2018 PhD in Chemistry, University of Southampton. Thesis: "Advances in Parahydrogen-Enhanced Nuclear Magnetic Resonance"
2015 Visiting researcher in the group of Prof. Dmitry Budker at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
2011-2015 Masters in Chemistry, University of Southampton and UC Berkeley, First-Class Honours
Awards and Funding
2026 Varian Young Investigator Award (€10,000), Ampere Society, Euromar
2025 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize (€200,000), DFG
2025 DFG Initiation of International Cooperation Grant
2024 Finalist, Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year (Physical Sciences): "Breaking the Wall of Ultralow-Field NMR"
2023 Helmholtz Young Investigator Group (€1,500,000): Enhanced Sensing with Hyperpolarized NMR
2023 Emmy Noether Grant, DFG (€1,600,000) — declined
2022 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (€200,000)
2022 Researcher Development Grant (£600), Royal Society of Chemistry
2021 Erwin-Schrödinger Award, Helmholtz Association (€50,000)
2021 DFG 3-year research grant (€450,000): "Hyperpolarized ZULF NMR"
2021 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (€130,000), BIST / Fundació Bosch Aymerich
2019 JGU Mainz competitive internal research funding (€14,500)
2018 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher Fellowship (ZULF ITN)
2018 RSC Researcher Mobility Grant
2017 Runner-up, University of Southampton Doctoral College Director's Awards (Citizenship & Community)
2016 Young Scientist in Magnetic Resonance Award, Euromar
2015 DAAD Short Term Research Grant
Invited Seminars
2027 University of Vienna, Institute of Biochemistry Seminar
2026 GDCh Invited Seminar, Rostock
2025 Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement, Wuhan
2024 HyPERiON Seminar, KIT
2024 DKFZ Medical Physics Seminar
2024 Leipzig Spin Resonance Colloquium
2023 Weizmann Institute Magnetic Resonance Seminar
2023 IMANT Seminar, Barcelona
2022 ICMRBS Seminar
2018 Goethe Universität Frankfurt NMR Seminar
2018 Bruker Biospin Seminar, Massachusetts
Conference Lectures
2025 EUROMAR, Oulu: Live magnetic observation of parahydrogen hyperpolarization dynamics
2023 RSC NMRDG, Nottingham (invited): PHIP in Microfluidics and Biomedicine
2023 HYP23, Leipzig: PHIP for Metabolic Imaging in Organ-on-a-Chip Devices
2022 SEQT Symposium, Barcelona: Hyperpolarizing [13C]fumarate for metabolic MRI
2021 HYP21, Lyon: NMR Spectroscopy without the Magnet
2021 ISMAR-APNMR (invited): Hyperpolarization-enhanced NMR using parahydrogen-polarized [1-13C]fumarate
2021 ICMRM (invited): Singlet-contrast imaging for hyperpolarized MRI
2021 PERM: Parahydrogen-polarized [1-13C]fumarate — state-of-the-art and future directions
2021 Analytical Research Forum, UK: NMR Spectroscopy without the Magnet
2020 EUROMAR: Metabolic NMR without the magnet
2020 Intercontinental NMR Seminar Series: Parahydrogen-enhanced NMR — methodology and applications
2020 PERM: Singlet-Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging
2020 PERM: Parahydrogen-polarized [1-13C]fumarate — a path to in vivo application
2019 Spin-Chemistry Meeting, St Petersburg: Polarization transfer in [1-13C]fumarate using constant-adiabaticity field sweeps
2019 ZULF ITN Symposium: Parahydrogen-induced hyperpolarization in ZULF NMR
2018 HYP18, Southampton: Field-swept polarization transfer in parahydrogen-enhanced NMR
2017 EUROMAR, Warsaw: Preservation of nuclear spin order by precipitation
2016 EUROMAR, Aarhus: A simple method to convert parahydrogen singlet order into observable magnetization on 13C
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