The organisation - The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is the largest University in Belgium and Flanders, with more than 40,000 students, a significant proportion of which can be found in the disciplines of Exact Sciences and Biomedical Sciences. The University has a long history, going back to 1425, a good track record in industrial relevance with more than 80 spin-offs and the largest patent portfolio of any University in Europe. The group at KUL contributing to the CosmoPHOS-nano project has a long-term experience in the fabrication of engineering nanomaterials in various technical applications and the development of new bio-nanomaterials for diagnostics and therapeutic applications.

Prof. Jean-Pierre Locquet obtained his PhD in physics from KUL and in 1988 joined the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich. Since then he has focused on the development of novel devices based on complex oxide materials and nanomaterials. Since October 2006 he has been a Professor at KUL in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and became Chairman of the Leuven Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.

Prof. Thierry Verbiest obtained a PhD in physical chemistry from the KU Leuven in 1993. In 2003 he became a professor at the KU Leuven at the department of chemistry. His research is focused on the study of nonlinear optical and magneto-optical properties of organic materials and the design and characterization of new nano materials.

Thierry Verbiest is author / co-author of more than 160 papers in international journals with over 5000 citations. He is also associate editor of the international journal “Optical Materials Express”.