Appointments of Dr. Katrien Bernaerts and Dr. Jules Harings as full professor at AMIBM
It is with great pleasure and proud to announce the recent appointments of Dr Katrien Bernaerts (per 1-2-2026) and Dr. Jules Harings (per 1-12-2025) as full professor at the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM). Both were involved in the establishment (with support from Province of Limburg, Maastricht University and RWTH-Aachen) of our institute right from the beginning. Recently we celebrated our 10th anniversary and with these appointments we strengthen our research portfolio and I am confident that AMIBM further prospers in the years to come.
Dr. Katrien Bernaerts
The main research focus of Katrien (Sustainable Polymer Synthesis) is on the design and synthesis of sustainable polymer materials with tuneable properties for the circular economy. Sustainability entails biobased building blocks (but no biorefinery) instead of fossil raw materials, green routes for polymer synthesis and processing, as well as chemical recycling/reprocessing methods (design for biodegradability, depolymerization, dynamic bonds) to make the end-of-life of polymers more sustainable. Structure-property relationships of the resulting polymers are evaluated in several fields of application e.g. stimuli-responsive polymers, coatings, fibres, engineering plastics and biomedical materials. Growing focus on the use of artificial intelligence techniques to support and accelerate the experimental work, e.g. data interpretation and prediction of structure-property relationships.
Dr. Jules Harings
Jules (Macromolecular Physics and Technology) aims to catalyze the industrial adoption of biobased materials and intrinsically close the materials’ carbon loop reducing excessive carbon emission and global warming. We read Nature’s chemistry for the design of biobased, new and high-valued materials structure – function relationships that outperform existing materials solutions. But, one can only do so if one understands the reverse reasoning, translating properties (function) from macro-, to micro- and nanoscopic or molecular length-scale. We study physical processes across these materials’ hierarchical length-scales using advanced, often combined spectroscopic techniques with not only light, but also force and temperature as dynamic stimuli.
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