Prof. Dr. ir. Gert Desmet

General introduction

Gert Desmet (°1967) has a Master’s degree in chemical engineering and obtained his PhD in chemical engineering (fermentation technology) from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium, where he currently is a full professor in chemical engineering and where he was the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2008 until 2020. In 2012-2015, he was the vice-dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering.

Research

His research focuses on the miniaturization of separation methods and on the investigation and the modeling of flow effects in chromatographic systems. He completed a 10 year term as Associate Editor of the journal “Analytical Chemistry” from the American Chemical Society from 2015-2025, and his research was in 20216 rewarded with an ERC Advanced Grant. He is also a member of the permanent scientific committee of the “International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related techniques” (HPLC) and the "International Symposium on Chromatography” (ISC) conference series, as well as of the SCM (International Symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules), HTC (International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography) and Balaton conference series. He was also the chair of the Solvay Workshop on "Chemical reactions and separation in flows" in 2017. In 2025, he was the chair of the HPLC 2025 conference held in Bruges, the leading conference in the area of liquid chromatography.

He has been the promoter of 49 successfully finished PhDs and has been authoring over 450 peer reviewed papers in international peer-reviewed journals (h-index=52, # citations=10,649) and filed 14 patent applications. His international recognition can, next to his status as an ERC Advanced Grant awardee, best be illustrated by the numerous international awards he received up to now. Already early on in his independent career (1999), he won the Nanotech-Montreux Award. In 2004, he won the award for most innovative scientist at the HTC conference. In 2006, he received the Desty Memorial award in London. In 2008, he was attributed the “Emerging Leader in Chromatography”-award from LCGC magazine and also received the "Agilent Technologies Award" from the Agilent Technologies foundation. In 2009, he received the Silver Jubilee Medal of the Chromatographic Society of the UK. In 2017, he won the JFK Huber Lecture Award for major contributions to the advancement of HPLC from the Austrian Society for Analytical Chemistry and ranked nr. 1 in both the top 10 “Separation scientists” as well as in the top 10 “Leaders” selected by the readers of The Analytical Scientist magazine, the leading trade journal for analytical separation science with 75,000+ readers. In 2019, he received both the prestigious “American Chemical Society Award for Chromatography” from the American Chemical Society in Orlando (USA), as well as the Istvan Halasz Medal award from the Hungarian Society for Separation Sciences (HSSS). Also in 2019, he ranked 7th (1st European) in the top 100 of most influential researchers in analytical sciences published by “The Analytical Scientist”. In 2020, he was attributed the A.J.P. Martin medal from the Chromatographic Society of the UK, named after the 1952 Nobel Laureate, as well as the Golay Award from Perkin-Elmer. In 2023, he ranked #2 in the section “Leaders and Advocates” of the Power List published by The Analytical Scientist. In 2024, he also ranked #2 in the “Instrumental Innovators” Power List. In 2026, he has been awarded with the Tswett-Nernst medal from the Central European Group on Separation Sciences.

Next to this, founded the spin-off company PharmaFluidics NV, where he chaired the Strategic Advisory Board and was a member of the Board of Directors until the company was acquired by Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is also the current Deputy Director for Chemistry of the Solvay Institutes of Physics and Chemistry and was a member of the Board of Directors of Pharmafluidics NV. And he is a past vice-chair and chair of the Chemistry Panel of the Belgian National Science Fund

Selected publications

• Desmet, G., Clicq, D. and Gzil, P., 2005, Geometry-independent plate height representation methods for the direct comparison of the kinetic performance of LC supports with a different size or morphology, Analytical Chemistry 77(13), pp.4058-4070.
• De Malsche, W., Eghbali, H., Clicq, D., Vangelooven, J., Gardeniers, J.G.E. and Desmet, G., 2007, Pressure-driven reverse-phase liquid chromatography separations in ordered nonporous pillar array columns, Analytical Chemistry 79(15), pp.5915-5926.
• Desmet, G., Callewaert, M., Ottevaere, H. and De Malsche, W., 2015, Merging Open-Tubular and Packed Bed Liquid Chromatography, Analytical Chemistry 87(14), pp.7382-7388.
• Broeckhoven, K. and Desmet, G., 2021, Advances and Innovations in Liquid Chromatography Stationary Phase Supports, Analytical Chemistry 93(1), pp.257-272.
• Matheuse, F., Vanmol, K., Van Erps, J., De Malsche, W., Ottevaere, H. and Desmet, G., 2022, On the potential use of two-photon polymerization to 3D print chromatographic packed bed supports, Journal of Chromatography A 1663, 462763.
• Huygens, B. and Desmet, G., 2022, Taylor-Aris dispersion for N-zone and continuous systems with variable sorption strength - extending Aris's approach, Chemical Engineering Science 247, 117051.
• Niezen, L.E., Libin, P.J.K., Cabooter, D. and Desmet, G., 2025, Reinforcement learning for automated method development in liquid chromatography: insights in the reward scheme and experimental budget selection, Journal of Chromatography A 1748, 465845.

Teaching

• Introduction to reactor design
• Biochemical Engineering
• Analytical (bio) Chemistry
• Micro- and Nanobiotechnology
• Design of multiphase reactors
• Modelling of (bio-)chemical processes
• Molecular technology
• Reaction and Transport