About Professor Yves H. Geerts

Yves Geerts obtained his diploma in chemistry from ULB, in 1989.

He had the chance to be among the first Erasmus students in the eighties.

He went to Strasbourg, France, to conduct an undergraduate research project supervised by Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Christiane Dietrich-Buchecker and devoted to the synthesis and photophysical properties of Cu (I) complexes.

After working on polymer tribology for DSM, in the Netherlands, he started doctoral researches on the morphology of polymer blends under the supervision of Georges Geuskens.

He obtained from ULB his doctoral title in Sciences with summa cum laude, in 1993.

Attracted by synthetic polymer chemistry, he went, for a first post-doctoral stay, supported by a Marie-Curie fellowship, and supervised by Klaus Müllen at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz.

He obtained a Fulbright fellowship and joined MIT to synthesize electroluminescent block copolymers in the group of the Noble Laureate Richard Schrock.

He returned then for two more years to Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research as research associate. During this period, he was involved in the synthesis of poly[2]catenanes, conjugated oligomers and discotic liquid crystals.

In 1997, he accepted a tenured position of research associate of the National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). Since 1999, he is professor of chemistry and the head of the Laboratory of Polymer Chemistry (LPC). Soon after, he started to be active at the European level with the coordination of the FP5-DISCEL project (2001-2004) that was followed by the FP6-NAIMO project (2004-2008) to which 22 industrial and academic partners contributed and that generated 360 publications, 12 patents, and 2 industrial technologies.

More recently, he has coordinated the FP7-ONE-P project (2009-2011) project that has put together 28 industries, universities and research centers to implement a coherent work plan aiming at developing the missing materials for the industrialization of organic electronics in Europe.

He has obtained a mandate of research professor from the Francqui Foundation, for the 2011-2015 time period.

This mandate has allocated him the time to focus on scientific research and to promote, in the world, the research results of LPC.