BPG 2019

Katrien Bernaerts, born in 1978 in Neerpelt (Belgium) graduated as a licentiate (master) in chemistry from Ghent University (Belgium) in 2000. From 2000 – 2005 she performed in PhD in polymer chemistry in the group of Prof. Du Prez at Ghent University (Belgium) on the synthesis and evaluation of stimuli (pH and temperature) responsive copolymer architectures by combination of different polymerization techniques. After PhD, Katrien spent 7 years in industry, doing research in the field of coatings and fibers. Since 2012, she holds an academic position in the Biobased Materials group at Maastricht University, where she is currently Associate Professor. Her main research interest is the design of polymer materials with tunable properties exploiting the functionality of biobased building blocks and the study of their structure-property relationships in several fields of application e.g. stimuli-responsive polymers, organic coatings, fibers, engineering plastics and biomedical applications. Email: katrien.bernaerts@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Philippe Cassagnau is Professor of rheology and material processing at the University of Lyon (France). He completed his Ph.D. in 1988 on molecular dynamic mechanisms and rheology of polydisperse polymers. In 1988, he joined the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) where he directed research on polymer processing, and more particularly on reactive extrusion. He was appointed as full Professor in 1999 at the University of Lyon, where he continues to develop his particular expertise in rheology and reactive processing of thermoplastic polymers. His research activities are at the crossroad of macromolecular chemistry, rheology, processing and structure development in polymers and filled polymers. Some key issues currently being investigated are the following: morphology development in thermoplastic vulcanized (TPV), rheology of suspensions and filled polymers and polymer nanofoams. Finally, Philippe Cassagnau is author of 210 papers and 12 patents.

Theo J. Dingemans is Professor of Polymer Chemistry. He received his BSc degree in Chemical Engineering at the Technische Hogeschool in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and his PhD degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998 with Professor Edward T. Samulski. He was a National Research Council (NRC) research fellow at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton (VA) from 1998 to 2003. He joined the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering and the Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in 2003 as an associate professor and was appointed Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek professor at the same University in 2009. In the same year, he was appointed as the first Dutch Polymer Institute (DPI) research fellow. In 2016 he moved back to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US) to help with setting-up the new Department of Applied Physical Sciences (APS). Within this new department he serves as a full professor of polymer chemistry and as the department associate chair.

His research has a strong focus on designing new light-weight polymers and (nano)composites with the ability to perform both structural and functional tasks. Such materials can be used in high-temperature shape-memory applications, photovoltaics, non-flammable Li-ion batteries, gas separation membranes and membranes that can be used to convert sea water into drinking water. His new laboratory at UNC is unique in that promising polymer inventions can be scaled-up using a 20 L scale-up facility. This allows for rapid in-house prototyping and facilitate in translating science into real applications. Dr. Dingemans is also co-founder and CTO of Allotropica Technologies Inc. This Chapel Hill based start-up develops new high-performance polymer chemistries for demanding aerospace, oil&gas, electronics and automotive applications.

Alexandre Welle is currently polymerization catalyst development manager at Total. His researches are focused on new polymerization catalyst discoveries, and development from lab to industrial scale. He obtained his PhD from UCL in 2010 working on homogenous catalysis based on copper with Pr Olivier Riant. He joined Total in 2011 as research engineer after a post-doctoral fellowship in Pr. Jacqueline Marchand-Brynaert laboratory working in medicinal chemistry.

Philippe ZINCK obtained his PhD in 1999 at the National Institute of Applied Science (INSA) in Lyon under the guidance of Prof. Jean-François GERARD. After post-doctoral stays at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Marie Curie Individual Fellowship), the Polytechnic Federal School of Lausanne (EPFL) and the Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de la Ville de Paris (ESPCI), he joined the University of Lille where he is currently full professor. His research interests focus on catalysis for functional and biobased polymers.