Organized Chaos
Inaugural lecture by Prof.dr.ir. Ilja Voets
On February 1, 2018 prof.dr.ir. Ilja Voets was appointed full-time professor in the field of Self-Organizing Soft Matter at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry of Eindhoven University of Technology. She is giving her inaugural lecture on October 25, 2019, in the Blauwe Zaal of the Auditorium (TU/e), at 4 PM.
About the lecture
The self-organization of tiny, chemical building blocks plays an important role in the construction of natural and synthetic materials, from paint to ice, from soap to cell. Managing this process is a major challenge. The building blocks are numerous, diverse, dynamic, sticky and small. Too small to grasp and too small to see with the naked eye. In her lecture, Ilja Voets discusses her fascination for self-organization. Using examples from her own work, she explains how fundamental insight into this process can contribute to societally relevant innovations.
Ilja Voets
Ilja Voets studied Molecular Sciences at Wageningen University. After her graduation (with highest distinction) in 2004 she started a PhD at the same university, where she obtained her PhD with the thesis âThe electrostatically driven co-assembly of double hydrophilic block copolymers in aqueous solutionâ in 2008 (with highest distinction). From 2008-2011 she worked as a postdoc at the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Fribourg, Switzerland, on the phase behavior of concentrated protein mixtures. In 2011 she returned to the Netherlands to develop her own line of research in physical chemistry as a university lecturer at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and theInstitute for Complex Molecular Systems at TU/e. Here, she was appointed associate professor in 2015 and then full professor in the field of Self-Organizing Soft Matter in 2018.
For her interdisciplinary research she has received several prestigious grants and awards, including an ERC Starting Grant and the ACS Young Investigators Award. She will receive the KNCV gold medal during CHAINS 2019. In collaboration with various partners, she develops practical applications based on the results of her fundamental research. In everyday language she regularly communicates her work to the broader public.
Ilja Voets is chairperson of the NWO Chemistry working group committee on chemistry of materials, board member of the KNCV section Soft Matter, and co-founder of the annual symposium NextGenChem@NL. She has more than 100 academic and scientific publications, 60 guest lectures and several patent applications to her name.
Self-Organizing Soft Matter Lab / Voetslab
Twitter: @Voets_Lab
(Header picture by Rob Stork)