Speakers
Henri Van Damme (ESPCI-ParisTech -
Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles in Paris)
Nanotechnology, Bio-Inspiration and Molecular Engineering: Towards Smart Concrete
Henri Van Damme has been professor at ESPCI-ParisTech (Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles) in Paris since 1999. He is primarily interested in the physics of natural and construction materials and its relationship with nanotechnologies.
Van Damme received his graduate degree in bio- and chemical engineering in 1969 and his PhD degree in materials science (glass) in 1973, both from the University of Louvain, Belgium. He then moved to the CNRS in Orléans, France, where, after a two-year post-doctoral position, he was appointed to a research scientist position. From 1976 through 1985, including a sabbatical year at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Van Damme worked on heterogeneous photocatalysis and on the photochemical conversion of solar energy. From 1985 through 1999, he was director of the CNRS Research Center on Divided Matter and his interest shifted to porous and dispersed materials, and complex fluids, with a growing interest in cement-based materials. In 1999 he joined the ESPCI in Paris to head the Structural and Macromolecular Physical Chemistry laboratory from 1999 to 2005, where he started working on polymer-based hybrids and nanocomposites. He has been leading several university-industry projects on nanomaterials, including an eight year program on the nanoscience of cemetitious materials.
Henri Van Damme has been president of the Condensed Matter Physics division of the French National Committee for Scientific Research from 1995 to 2000. In recent years he was also Scientific Counselor at the Atomic Energy Commissariat (CEA, 2002-2007), the Scientific and Technical Center for Building (CSTB, 2003-2007) and the French Petroleum Institute (IFP, 2002-). He is the author of approximately 150 papers and book chapters.