The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little into the impossible.

Dr. Ir. Yari Foelen is a fellow of the Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials and Devices group in collaboration with prof. dr. Albert Schenning. In close collaboration with industry, Yari works on visual indicators, specifically using stimuli-responsive liquid crystal technology.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Universiteit Hasselt (Hasselt, Belgium) with a research project on pressure sensitive adhesives in collaboration with Nitto Europe, Yari chose to pursue a more application oriented master's degree at TU Eindhoven where he enrolled in the molecular systems and materials chemistry track of the Chemical engineering department. For his graduation project in 2018, he characterized the mechanical deformation of light responsive liquid crystal bilayer films in the stimuli-responsive functional materials & devices (SFD) group, under the supervision of Marina Pilz Da Cunha MSc and Prof. dr. Albert Schenning. After 5 months industrial internship working on automated polymerization of drug carriers and emulsion polymerization optimization at CSIRO (Melbourne, Australia), Yari completed his Master of Science degree in 2018. The same year, he started his PhD research on visual indicators at the SFD group of TU Eindhoven. The most important discoveries of his research are presented in various scientific publications which also resulted in two patents. He was awarded with a grant of the Faculty of Impact (NWO) to continue with development and validation of the technology invented during his PhD.