Erik Neyts (°1977) obtained his PhD in 2006 under the supervision of Prof. Bogaerts in the PLASMANT group on molecular dynamics simulations of diamond-like carbon thin films. After his PhD, he obtained twice a FWO postdoc fellowship. In 2010 he became tenure-track professor (assistant professor), in 2017 associate professor and in 2021 professor.
His gradually expanded his research topics and expertise from classical MD simulations for thin carbon films to a variety of other (nano)materials, plasma-surface interactions, the use of DFT and enhanced sampling techniques, and very recently astrochemistry. He currently has (co-)authored about 200 peer-reviewed publications with almost 10.000 citations, and an H-factor of 48. In total, he gave more than 60 invited lectures and seminars world-wide. He supervised 16 Ph.D.’s, of which 3 joint Ph.D.’s. He currently supervises 4 running Ph.D.’s.
His teaching activities include Bachlor and Master courses on General Chemistry, Thermodynamics, as well as more specialized courses, distributed over 4 programmes in 3 different faculties. He was vice-chair of the Educational Board of Chemistry in the period 2016-2021 and chair since 2022. He is also a member of a variety of commissions and councils at UAntwerp, mostly related to education. He received 1 research award and 3 teaching awards.
Next to being a professor of chemistry, Erik Neyts is also studying English and Dutch Literature and Linguistics at the University of Antwerp.