Olaf van der Sluis is Associate Professor in the Mechanics of Materials section within the department of Mechanical Engineering and Head of Science of the Casimir Institute, both at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research focusses on materials and interfaces in high-tech systems and include the development of multi-scale degradation and fracture computational models and experimental characterization methods to understand and prevent critical failure phenomena, at the smallest relevant scale, within complex high-tech systems such as (micro-)electronic components, deformable electronics, photonics, and medical devices and systems. Additional research topics are digital twin concepts of high-tech systems for life cycle assessment, reduced order modelling, and physics-informed machine learning.

Olaf van der Sluis obtained his PhD in continuum-based multi-scale modelling of materials in 2001 at TU/e. In 2001, he joined Philips CFT (which became Philips Applied Technologies in 2005) working on various topics such as non-local ductile damage material models and computational homogenization for metal forming processes, as well as fracture mechanics and lifetime prediction of microelectronics devices. In 2011, he joined Philips Research where he had several roles (senior scientist, competence leader, group leader). He was involved in or in charge of several EU-funded research projects and served as an expert evaluator for the European Commission. In 2017, he received the Philips Research Outstanding Achievement Award. Between 2010 and 2023, he was a part-time staff member in the Mechanics of Materials section at TU/e. In 2024, he returned to TU/e as a full-time associate professor in the same section.