Chemist Kees Hummelen in Materials Science Top 10

The Groningen solar cell researcher Prof. Kees Hummelen is among the top of his field. He is ranked 7th in the Times Higher Education’s international ranking list of researchers who have published in the field of materials science over the past ten years.

Prof. Paul Blom and Prof. Dago de Leeuw, who are both, like Hummelen, linked to the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, are in 31st and 47th place respectively.

Notably, Kees Hummelen is one place higher up the list than Alan J. Heeger, the chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000 for his discovery of conductive polymers.
Hummelen studies solar cells made from a new type of plastic that is able to convert light into electricity. The advantage of this material is that it can be cheaply produced in large quantities. However, its yield will have to be significantly increased for the material to become really useful. Hummelen received a EUR 5 million FOM grant last month to further improve the solar cells that he has been researching for over ten years.

Blom and De Leeuw also concentrate on plastic materials that can conduct electricity. Blom is Scientific Director Systems-in-Foil at the Holst Centre of the High Tech Campus Eindhoven and holds an honorary chair at the University of Groningen. De Leeuw works at the Philips NatLab and is also an honorary professor at the University. They both spend one day a week in Groningen and supervise a research group comprising more than ten PhD students.

The fourth and last Dutchman in the Times Higher Education Top 100 is Prof. René Janssen from Eindhoven University of Technology, ranked 92th. He is also working on conductive plastic materials.

Please see: Top Materials Scientists Of The Past Decade [PDF]