Ghent University is a top 100 university and one of the major universities in Belgium. UGent is composed of 11 faculties that are divided into 86 departments and offer high-quality and research-supported training courses in most scientific disciplines. UGent gathers more than 44,000 students and 15,000 staff members.

The Polymer Chemistry Research group (PCR) involves about 25 researchers. The PCR research activities can be described under the general heading "design, characterization and application of tailor-made, functional polymer structures and polymeric-derived materials".

The main focus of the organic synthesis (OS) research group is the chemical synthesis and derivatisation of organic compounds with non-trivial carbon connectivities, such as those found in polycyclic Natural Products. Currently, the group involves about 15 researchers.

The Mechanics of Materials and Structures (MMS) research group focuses on the mechanical characterization of fibre-reinforced composites, both from experimental and computational point of view. The group counts about 30 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers.

Prof. Dr. Filip Du Prez is since 1999 heading the Polymer Chemistry Research Group (www.PCR.UGent.be) at Ghent University in which about 25 researchers are dealing with the development of new polymer structures, such as sequence-defined polymers, exploration of powerful functionalization methods and the design of dynamic/renewable polymer materials. He is mentor and supervisor of 40 defended PhD theses and 10 running ones. In 2008, he had a Visiting Professor position at the CAMD Research Center (UNSW, Sydney). He is author of about 300 peer-reviewed publications (h-index > 50), 12 patents, 10 book chapters and was (co-)chairman of more than 10 (inter)national conferences on polymer chemistry related topics. Since 2018, he is associate editor of Polymer Chemistry.

Prof. Dr. Johan Winne received his PhD in chemistry in 2000 at Ghent University, where he also obtained his PhD degree in 2007, having studied cationic polyene cyclisation under the guidance of Prof. Pierre De Clercq. He then spent two years as a postdoctoral research fellow with Prof. Gerry Pattenden in the University of Nottingham (UK), working on the total synthesis of terpenoid natural products. In 2009, he was appointed as a doctor-assistant (30% teaching position) at Ghent University, where he acquired an independent position in 2013, and in October 2015, he was appointed as a full-time independent faculty member. His research interests are in organic synthesis, ranging from architecturally complex natural products, to functional and modular molecular building blocks for material science and biology research.

Prof. dr. ir. Wim Van Paepegem is full professor and head of the research group Mechanics of Materials and Structures (UGent-MMS) at Ghent University. He is (co-)promotor of different research projects and PhD students in fatigue, impact and damage mechanics of fibre-reinforced composite materials, and published more than 230 Science Citation Index (SCI) papers in these research domains. He received already 5 personal awards for his academic achievements. He is mentor and supervisor of 31 defended PhD theses and 12 running PhD theses. He is serving as an Editorial Board Member for the international journals "Composites Science and Technology", "Composites Part B", "Polymer Testing" and "Fatigue and Fracture of Engineering Materials and Structures". He is also member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Composite Materials.

Dr. Ilse Christiaens is a business developer at Ghent University in the domain of composites, polymer processing/recycling and additive manufacturing. She has a background as an engineer and a PhD in photonics.  After working for several years in a spin-off of Ghent University, she rejoined the university Technology Transfer team to support the technology development at the university and the transfer to industry and society.

Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281  S4, B-9000 Ghent - Belgium