“Every minute part of an airplane has a detailed failure model associated to it. The failing human heart, responsible for a death toll of 7 million a year, has not.” - Inaugural lecture, 2017, Limerick

Jacques Huyghe is an Associate Professor in the section Energy Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His current research is focused on porous media mechanics of swelling materials with applications in the field of biomechanics, prosthesis design and petroleum engineering. Interests include application of advanced mechanics to biological tissues, including spine, cardiac muscle, skeletal muscle, cartilage and skin, multiphysics phenomena in swelling media, continuum description of blood perfusion, interfacial phenomena at the microscale, fracture in porous media and non-linear finite elements coupled to microscopic experimental research.

His group has developed a poromechanical FE description of highly deformable gels such as the cytoskeleton of a living cell and is presently exploring biological applications of diffusiophoresis and developing a failure model of the human heart. Experimentally, he works on lens-free imaging and optical tweezing.

Jacques Huyghe holds an MSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He received his PhD from TU/e in 1986. After a stint as Assistant Professorship at Maastricht University, he was nominated as a fellow of Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1996 to 2001 in Eindhoven University of Technology. He has been associate Professor in Eindhoven University of Technology from 2001 to 2013. In addition to his work at TU/e, Jacques Bernal is Chair of Biomedical Engineering, University of Limerick, Ireland. 

Jacques is a steering member of the Poromechanics Committee of the American Society of Civil Engineers.   He was associate editor of the J. Biomech. Engng. of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is presently editorial member of the journal Biorheology, and  Transport in Porous Media. He is member of the Solid Mechanics Committee of the European Society of Mechanics as well as founding member of the International Society for Porous Media.

• International Society for Porous Media (Interpore.org)
• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE.org)
• European Society of Mechanics (Euromech.org)

Partners in (semi-)industry

• Procter and Gamble, Schwalbach, Germany
• Dassault Systèmes, ABAQUS, Living Heart.
• OCE-CANON, Venlo
• Boston Scientific, Galway, Ireland