"Living biological materials are very special. They last for a lifetime, literally, through constant renewal and self-repair. They provide tremendous inspiration for new materials design."

Kees Storm (he/him) is the Dean of the Department of Applied Physics and Science Education at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He is professor of Theoretical Biophysics in the Soft Matter and Biological Physics group where the focus is on mechanical and active/motile properties of biological soft matter: proteins, polymers, membranes, fibrous networks, cells and tissues. The research focuses on their microstructure in relation to their behaviour, and the interactions between cells and their environment.

Cornelis (Kees) Storm obtained his master's degree in Theoretical Physics at Leiden University and earned his PhD in 2001 under supervision of Prof. Wim van Saarloos. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Institut Curie (Paris), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Leiden University. In 2007 Storm was appointed Assistant Professor at TU/e (department of Applied Physics and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems). He received tenure in 2009 and became Associate Professor in 2015. Since October 2017 Storm is Full Professor at TU/e, leading the Theory of Polymers and Soft Matter group from 2016 until 2022, when he was appointed Dean. Storm held visiting professorships at Harvard University's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (2015) and Princeton University's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (2022).

· Institute for Complex Molecular Systems

· Eindhoven Polymer Laboratories

· Eindhoven Multiscale Institute

Partners in (semi-)industry 

· Unilever

· DSM/Sabic

· TNO