2025 Speaker Information

Bert Meijer

R.T. Major Keynote Speaker
E.W. "Bert" Meijer
Distinguished University Professor in the Molecular Sciences & Organic Chemistry 
Institute for Complex Molecular Systems of the Eindhoven University of Technology

"From Supramolecular Polymers to Functional Materials and Systems"
Thursday, April 3rd, 2025
12:30 PM - 1:45 PM
CHEM A-203

 

"A Personal Journey Through My Chiral World"
Friday, April 4th, 2025
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
CHEM A-203

E.W. “Bert” Meijer is Distinguished University Professor in the Molecular Sciences, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems of the Eindhoven University of Technology. After receiving his PhD degree in 1982 at the University of Groningen with Hans Wynberg, he worked for 10 years in industry (Philips and DSM). In 1991 he was appointed in Eindhoven, while in the meantime he has part-time positions in Mainz, Santa Barbara, and Sydney. Bert Meijer is a member of many editorial advisory boards, and he is associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Bert Meijer has received several awards, including the Spinoza Award (2001), the ACS Award for Polymer Chemistry (2006), the AkzoNobel Science Award (2010), the ACS Cope Scholar Award (2012), the Prelog Medal (2014), the Nagoya Gold Medal (2017), the Chirality Medal (2018), the Van’t Hoff Medal (2022), the GDCh Hermann Staudinger Preiss (2022) and the France Grand Prix (2024). He is member of several academies and societies, including the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science, where he is appointed to Academy Professor in 2014. Since 2020 he is Commander in the Order of the Dutch Lion.

Brett Helms

R.T. Major Invited Speaker
Brett A. Helms
Senior Scientist 
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 

Friday, April 4th, 2025
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
CHEM A-203

Brett A. Helms  received his B.S. (2000) from Harvey Mudd College and his Ph.D. (2006) with Jean M. J. Fréchet at the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the staff of the Molecular Foundry in 2007, after postdoctoral research at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven with E. W. (Bert) Meijer. In 2015, he co-founded Sepion Technologies, which is commercializing novel membranes for clean energy technologies.

Dr. Helms’ research program is devoted to understanding and controlling transport in mesostructured systems assembled from organic, polymeric, or nanocrystalline components. Enhanced capabilities relevant to energy, health, water, and food quality are enabled by his unique approaches to the design of their architectures and interfaces.