Prof. Thomas Cleij

Prof. Dr. Thomas J. Cleij obtained his Ph.D. in 1999 at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in chemistry in the field of polymeric materials science. After working for a Utrecht University spin-off company, in 2000, he was appointed as assistant professor at Louisiana State University (United States), followed by associate and full professor at Hasselt University (Belgium). In 2005, he became involved with the efforts to expand Maastricht University (The Netherlands) with natural science education and research.  This resulted, amongst others, in the Maastricht Science Programme, which he started in 2011, as well as several other research and education initiatives. Since 2012, he has been appointed at Maastricht University as a Full Professor. From the beginning of 2018, he is the founder and Dean of the new Faculty of Science and Engineering at Maastricht University, which in 2023 already has more than 3700 students and 450 staff members, covering a wide range of STEM domains. The expertise of his Sensor Engineering research group in Nano(Bio)Technology and Bio-Electronics focuses on the combination and interplay of novel functional polymeric materials and advanced applications in the life sciences, with an emphasis on point-of-care diagnostics. He has (co)authored more than 140 scientific contributions in peer reviewed journals.