"Transport processes are everywhere! Transport processes in materials are crucial for many reasons, ranging from durability and reactivity to energy storage. Understanding these phenomena provides key knowledge required for new material innovation."

Bart Erich is research associate in the group transport in permeable media at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). To date, his research has focused on transport processes in coatings and packaging materials. In recent years, he has been moving towards energy related research in materials, ranging from aesthetic solar harvesting in facades of buildings (TNO) to heat storage in thermochemical materials (TU/e and TNO). These materials allow storage of harvested heat, to balance supply and demand.
Bart’s scientific profile covers experimentation as well as modelling. Transport processes are generally best understood from experiments (especially using non-invasive spatial resolving techniques such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), to be followed by modelling to understand the detailed processes, and enabling steering of processes for material innovation.
Bart has been coordinating several EU projects within FP7 ‘AXIOMA’ focusing on protecting materials against growth of micro-organisms by smart release of anti-microbial substances, and the Horizon 2020 ENVISION project, focusing on introducing aesthetic energy harvesting in building facades.

Bart Erich obtained his MSc in Applied Physics at TU/e and obtained his PhD in 2006 under supervision of Prof. dr. ir. Klaas Kopinga. After finishing his PhD thesis on “NMR imaging of curing processes in alkyd coatings”, he has continued to develop his expertise at TNO and TU/e. He moved to the TNO building materials department in 2006. Since then, he has been participating in the research of the Transport in Permeable Media group, combining application-oriented research at TNO with fundamental research at the TU/e.
Bart has been teaching master courses on measurement techniques for transport physics, and Introduction to NMR/MRI for imaging and flow visualization. The latter course on NMR/MRI shows the large range of fields science that are touched, ranging from quantum mechanics, flow, chemical analysis, mathematics to electronics and software. His vision encompasses a broad spectrum of scientific fields, allowing Bart to uniquely combine knowledge to find new fields of application, and fundamental research topics.

Partners in (semi-)industry:

• TNO
• AkzoNobel
• Philips
• NXP
• DSM