Short professional biography

I am a chemical reactor engineer who is intrigued by the mathematical beauty and scientific complexity that links the design of innovative reactors with fluid dynamics. As a PhD student in chemical engineering, I already set up a research line where rigorous numerical simulations of flow in the rotor-stator spinning disc reactor has yielded mechanistic insights in mixing and processes of mass and hear transfer. On March, 3^rd 2015 this culminated in me obtaining my PhD degree cum laude at Eindhoven University of Technology.
After this, I became Lead Scientist at Flowid and in that capacity I also was the project leader of multiple R&D projects for international clients in industry. During these projects I combined my knowledge of fluid dynamics with reactor engineering to design creative solutions for process intensification cases at real industrial sites of these clients.
My experiences in industry have shaped my understanding that torsion, turbulence, and high gravity systems greatly accelerate mixing and thus reactor performance to such an extent that classical design models for chemical reactors break down. Therefore, to efficiently design high gravity and high shear reactors, new design models need to be developed to facilitate the breakthrough of novel reactors for general industrial applications. The only way to do so is to go back to the fundamentals, i.e. develop these engineering and design principles from a foundation coming from fluid dynamics. This insight was the driving force behind my early return from industry to academia, because only with fundamental knowledge on turbulent and rotating flows we will be able to reinvent chemical reactor engineering… and eventually come up with reactors that are even more efficient, sustainable, and economic than the current generation of rotating, high shear reactors.

Visit my LinkedIn

Read my full PhD thesis