Bert van Heesch is an emeritus assistant professor with the research group Electrical Energy Systems of the TU/e department of Electrical Engineering where he is concerned with pulsed plasma development and application. Pulsed Plasma is a flash or shower of mini lightning, repeated continuously. It can be produced in the air on a table, in a room, or in water or in rock or in a reactor. It is an efficient tool of pulsed chemistry and, on the other side, can be boosted to create powerful flashes in rock that cause fracture. One promising application of this is pulsed plasma drilling to liberate deep geothermal power.

The fields of expertise are: pulsed plasma creation, high-voltage engineering, pulsed power technology and electromagnetic compatibility. He is (co-) inventor of 7 patents and is (co-)author of more than 280 international publications.

Bert (E.J.M.) van Heesch studied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e, The Netherlands), where he received his Master’s degree in 1975. In 1982, he obtained his PhD at Utrecht University on plasma physics and fusion related research. In his professional career he has been occupied with shock-tube plasma dynamics (Eindhoven 1975) and with fusion technology (Jutphaas, The Netherlands, 1975-1984, Suchumi former USSR, 1978 and Saskatoon, Canada, 1984-1986). In 1986 he was appointed as assistant professor at TU/e where he has led the pulsed power research until his retirement in 2016. He now is a senior consultant in joint projects with industry.