Berg

Professor Albert van den Berg is Distinguished University Professor of the University of Twente (The Netherlands).

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He received his master degree in applied physics from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) in 1983. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Twente in 1988, van den Berg worked at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM) and the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) of the University of Neuchatel (Switzerland). From 1993 until 1999 he was research director Micro Total Analysis Systems (μTAS) at the MESA+ institute of the University of Twente. In 1998 he was appointed as part-time professor Biochemical Analysis Systems and in 2000 as full professor on Miniaturized Systems for (Bio)Chemical Analysis in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computational Science of the same university. Van den Berg (co-) authored ~ 270 publications in peer-reviewed journals with an average number of citations per paper of ~ 27 and a Hirsch index of 47. He was asked to write two Nature News & Views articles on nanofluidics publications, and co-edited a special issue in Chemical Society Reviews on micro and nanofluidics. Furthermore, van den Berg (co-) edited 4 books, is (co-) author of > 5 conference proceedings publications, > 10 national journal publications, > 10 book chapters, and holds > 15 patents/ patent applications.

Van den Berg is associate editor of Lab on a Chip and editorial board member of Biomedical Microdevices, Sensors and Actuators B and Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. He obtained a TOP NWO (2012) grant from The Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO) and an Advanced ERC grant (2008) and ERC Proof of Concept grant (2011) from the European Research Council. Van den Berg also has received several research awards, including the 2002 Simon Stevin Master award from the Dutch Technical Science Foundation (STW), the 2004 Leverhulme Trust Award for knowledge valorization, the 2007 Top Institute Food and Nutrition publication Prize and the 2009 Spinoza Award, the most prestigious scientific award in The Netherlands. Furthermore, he has been appointed in 2012 as Distinguished Professor at South China Normal University.

Van den Berg is Flagship captain of the Nanofluidics program of the NanoNext research program (since 2008). Van den Berg is also an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW, 2008-onwards). He serves on several boards and panels for research, including board member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, the ETH D-BSSE institute in Basel, board member of the KNAW, member of the Dutch Health Council and board member of the Chemical and Biological Microsystems Society. He also has been founding chairman of the microTAS conference series (1994-now) as well as chairman of the National Sensor Conference (1998), the Gordon Research Conference on Chemistry and Fluidics of Microfluidics (2003) and the 1st International Conference on Nanofluidics (2006).

Weckhuysen

Professor Bert Weckhuysen is Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University (the Netherlands).

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Bert Weckhuysen received his master degree in chemical and agricultural engineering with greatest distinction from Leuven University (Belgium) in 1991. After obtaining his PhD degree from Leuven University with honours (highest degree) in 1995 under the supervision of Prof. Robert Schoonheydt, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Israel Wachs at Lehigh University (USA) and with Prof. Jack Lunsford at Texas A&M University (USA). From 1997 until 2000 he was a research fellow of the Belgian National Science Foundation affiliated with Leuven University. Weckhuysen is since October 1 2000 Full Professor at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). Weckhuysen has been appointed as first Distinguished Professor of the Faculty of Science at Utrecht University as of September 2012. Since January 2018 he has been promoted to Distinguished University Professor at Utrecht University. He was a visiting professor at Leuven University (2000-2005) and has done a sabbatical at Stanford University (USA) in 2012. He is currently a visiting professor at Stanford University & SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (2013-to date) and at University College London (UK, 2014-to date).
 
Weckhuysen authored or co-authored ~ 500 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals with an average number of citations per paper of ~ 42 and a Hirsch index of 79. Weckhuysen is the author of ~ 20 conference proceedings publications, ~ 30 other journal publications and editorial material, ~ 30 book chapters, 3 granted patents and 8 patent applications. Furthermore, he is the (co-) editor of three books. He serves/served on the editorial and/or advisory boards of Applied Catalysis A: General, Catalysis Letters, Catalysis Today, Chem, Chemical Society Reviews, ChemCatChem, ChemPhysChem, Faraday Discussions, Journal of Applied Chemistry, Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Topics in Catalysis, Vibrational Spectroscopy, Angewandte Chemie and the Journal of Catalysis.
 
He obtained prestigious VICI (2002), TOP (2006 and 2011) and Gravitation (2013) grants from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2012 he has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). Weckhuysen has received several research awards, including the 2006 Royal Dutch Chemical Society Gold Medal, the 2007 DECHEMA Award from The Max Buchner Research Foundation, the 2009 Netherlands Catalysis and Chemistry Award, the Eminent Visitor Award 2009 of the Catalysis Society of South Africa, the 2011 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis of the North American Catalysis Society, the International Catalysis Award 2012 of the International Association of Catalysis Societies, the 2013 Vladimir N. Ipatieff Lectureship in Catalysis from Northwestern University, the 2013 John Bourke Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the 2013 Spinoza Award from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the 2017 Kozo Tanabe Prize in Acid-Base Catalysis from the International Acid-Base Group, the 2017 Xing Da Lectureship of Peking University and the 2018 Robert B. Anderson Award from the Canadian Catalysis Society. In 2015 he has been appointed Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. In 2018 he received a Certificate for Achievements of the Christoffel Plantin fund for his contributions to the prestige and appeal of Belgium in foreign countries from the Belgian Ambassador in the Netherlands.
Weckhuysen was the scientific director of the Dutch Research School for Catalysis (NIOK) in the period 2003-2013 and of a Smartmix research program Biomass Catalysis funded by the Dutch government and chemical industries (CatchBio; 2007-2016; ~29 M€; www.catchbio.com). Currently, he directs a Gravitation research program on Multiscale Catalytic Energy Conversions (MCEC; 2013-2023; ~32 M€; www.mcec-researchcenter.nl) funded by the Dutch government as well as the Advanced Research Center Chemical Building Blocks Consortium (ARC CBBC; 2016-2026; 11 M€/year, www.arc-cbbc.nl) with a joint investment by government, businesses and universities. He was (one of) the main initiator(s) of these large research program initiatives.

Weckhuysen is an elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW), Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts (KVAB), the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (NATI), the Royal Holland Society of Sciences (KHMW), and the European Academy of Science; an alumnus elected member of the Young Academy (DJA, 2005-2010) of the KNAW; and a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) and ChemPubSoc Europe. Weckhuysen serves on many boards and panels for national and international research.

The research group of Bert Weckhuysen has been active for many years in the design, synthesis, characterization and application of catalytic solids for the conversion of fossil (crude oil & natural gas) and renewable (biomass, waste and CO2) feedstock into transportation fuels, chemicals and materials. He is internationally renowned for the development of in-situ spectroscopy and microscopy for studying catalytic solids under realistic conditions. This approach has provided unique insights in the working and deactivation mechanisms of catalytic processes, as well as in the internal architecture of functional materials.