People

Louis was born in Casper, Wyoming, in the United States of America. He received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry at the Colorado School of Mines in 2005 where he worked with Prof. Daniel Knauss on highly branched polylactide architectures. Louis was then supervised by Marc Hillmyer at the University of Minnesota, earning his PhD in 2011 related to functional block polymer development employing ring-opening metathesis polymerizations. Afterward, Louis obtained a post-doctoral fellowship working with Bert Meijer at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, applying dynamic bonding strategies to block polymer synthesis and self-assembly. After a short time working at DSM, Louis began his independent career in 2018 as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and as a member of the Institute for Materials Research (imo-imomec) at Hasselt University in Belgium.

Amruta was born in Latur in Maharashtra, India. After schooling she moved to Pune, Maharashtra for doing Bachelor of Engineering from Maharashtra Institute of Technology in 2008. She worked as project assistant on projects related to polyolefins and materials in health care in CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune, India. She then pursued her PhD on structure and dynamics of ionomers of Poly (lactides) under the guidance of Dr. Ashish Lele in 2018. During this time, she also volunteered for an exciting science group to encourage school kids towards science and guided projects for science competitions. She then shortly tried her hands-on in the emerging field of Sodium-ion batteries in Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. She moved to Maastricht University, Netherlands in 2020 where she worked on structure and properties of thermoplastic elastomers based on recycled materials with Prof. Sanjay Rastogi. This upcycling approach interests her to pursue another post-doctoral research in Pitet group, Hasselt University in 2022.

Mariana received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering of materials from the Autonomous University of Querétaro in Mexico. Her interest in materials science took her to the Netherlands, where she pursued a master’s degree in biobased materials at Maastricht University. During her time in Maastricht, Mariana joined the MERLN institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative medicine, where she worked on hydrogel vascular structures for tissue engineering as a part of her master’s thesis. Currently, Mariana is pursuing a joint PhD between Hasselt University and Maastricht University, where she is working on developing tough hydrogels for their broader application as structural materials. Her research is supervised by Dr. Louis Pitet and co-supervised by Dr. Matthew Baker. With her expertise in hydrogels and polymer science, Mariana aspires to develop materials with unique properties that can push further the field of tissue engineering. During her free time, Mariana enjoys watercolor painting, reading and spending time with family and friends.

Mahsa was born and grew up in Tehran, Iran where she earned her bachelor's degree from Iran University of Science and Technology in materials engineering. She then worked on analyzing the microstructural evolution and mechanical properties of Al-Mg2Si in situ composites at Tehran University as a part of her Master's thesis. Mahsa joined the Pitet group in October of 2020 to work on tough double network hydrogels for tissue engineering as her PhD project, where she is co-supervised by Matthew Baker (Maastricht University). She enjoys hiking and photography as hobbies.

Sander grew up in Maasmechelen (Limburg, Belgium) and received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences at Hasselt University in 2019. He then worked on stimuli-responsive biopolymer nanocarriers as a part of his master's thesis. After obtaining his master's degree in Biomedical Sciences (Bioelectronics & Nanotechnology) at Hasselt University in 2021, Sander joined the Pitet group to work on combining hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering, where he is co-supervised by Geert-Jan Graulus. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, cooking and gaming with his friends.

Milan was born in Belgium, but grew up in Abu Dhabi. He obtained his bachelor in biology in 2019 at UHasselt. Following this, he then transitioned to a biomedical sciences to complete a masters degree in bio electronics and nanotechnology, focussing on the synthesis of biopolymer-nanocapsules for targeted drug delivery for his thesis. Within the Pitet group, he is currently focussing on the topic of continuous flow polymerization. In his spare time, Milan loves to cycle and swim. He is also an avid board game collector, and loves having a game-night with his friends.

Arthur was born and raised in Westerlo (Antwerp, Belgium) and received his bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Sciences at Hasselt University in 2019. For his master’s thesis he joined the Pitet group to work on tough injectable hydrogels for tissue engineering. He obtained his master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences (Bioelectronics & nanotechnology) at Hasselt University, and is currently pursuing a joint-PhD project at the AFP group (UHasselt) and Biomatt group (Maastricht University). Here, he focusses on the development of dynamic hydrogels for cartilage tissue engineering and 3D printing. In his spare time, Arthur likes to go out for a drink with friends, play video games, and never says no to a game of chess.

Jeffy was born in Ernakulam in Kerala, India. She earned her bachelor’s in Chemistry from Mahatma Gandhi University and Master’s in Polymer Science from Central Institute of Petrochemical Engineering and Technology (CIPET), Kochi.   As part of her Master’s thesis, she worked on the fabrication of Polymer nanocomposite membranes for hydrogen separation at Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur. She then moved to Hyderabad, at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), as a Project Associate where her goal was to synthesize Electrospun nanoporous films for water purification such as heavy metal removal and antibacterial treatment. She joined the Pitet group in 2023 where her research focus is on continuous flow polymerization. She is excited to be working on this cutting-edge technology, and she is confident that it will have a profound effect on developing more sustainable materials. Besides her scientific interests, she likes to paint, go out with friends and a beach day never fails to be her perfect weekend.

Ulrike grew up in Herselt (Antwerpen, Belgium) and received her bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences in 2021 at Hasselt University. Now, Ulrike is pursuing a master's degree in Bioelectronics and Nanotechnology and will complete her master's thesis in the Pitet group. Under the supervision of Mahsa Ebrahimi, she will focus on 3D printing mechanically robust hydrogels for applications within the field of tissue engineering. During her leisure time, Ulrike enjoys playing the guitar, hiking with her Border Collie, and spending time with friends.

Valentino was born and grew up in Genk (Limburg, Belgium) and received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences at Hasselt University in 2021. He is now pursuing a master’s degree in Bioelectronics and Nanotechnology. To this end Valentino is jointly appointed in the Pitet and Graulus groups and is working on hybrid hydrogels with peptide conjugation for targeted cartilage tissue engineering as a part of his master's thesis under supervision of Sander Driesen. In his free time, Valentino enjoys playing video games and tabletop games with his friends, reading and drawing.