Richard Hoogenboom - Biography#

Prof. Hoogenboom was trained as a chemical engineer at Eindhoven University of Technology and finished his master thesis under supervision of Prof. E. W. (Bert) Meijer in 2001, after which he specialized in polymer chemistry during his PhD research at Eindhoven University of Technology under supervision of Ulrich S. Schubert. He further specialized in polymer science as project leader for the Dutch Polymer Institute, and his postdoctoral training with Prof. Martin Moeller (RWTH Aachen; Humboldt fellowship) and Prof. Roeland Nolte (Radboud University Nijmegen; NWO Veni-grant).

In 2010 Prof. Hoogenboom was appointed as associate professor at Ghent University to start a new research group on supramolecular chemistry, based on a University wide competitive call for new professors (BOF-ZAP; ranked first out of 150 applicants). In 2014 Prof. Hoogenboom was promoted to full professor and in 2022 to senior full professor. The research of Prof. Hoogenboom aims to develop advanced functional polymer materials through molecular design based on supramolecular materials, responsive polymers and poy(2-oxazoline)s (see: https://www.sc.ugent.be). His work synergistically combines organic chemistry with supramolecular chemistry and/or polymer chemistry to go beyond the state-of-the-art in designing novel materials, which together with in depth understanding of the responsive properties provides a unique approach in polymer and material science. Prof. Hoogenboom has >20 active ongoing collaboration with research groups worldwide, as evidenced by recent joint publications.

Prof. Hoogenboom has coauthored > 550 scientific publication, mostly as senior corresponding author, often in high tier journals, such as JACS, Angewandte, Nat. Commun, Adv Funct Mater. These publications have attracted > 30,000 citations (> 2000 citations per year; h-index 79; WoS). He (co)supervised 45 PhD students and 29 postdocs, of which 12 have taken up academic faculty positions worldwide. Besides regular scientific reviewing of manuscripts for high tier journals and proposals for various funding bodies, Prof. Hoogenboom served on the ERC StG panel (2017, 2019, 2021), the FWO-chemistry (2013 - 2019), FCT Portugal (2015, 2020 - 2022) and IRC Ireland (2017, 2018, 2022) panels. Prof. Hoogenboom serves as editor-in-chief for European Polymer Journal since 2019 which has become the highest ranked general polymer science journal in recent years.

In addition to the scientific publications, Prof. Hoogenboom is listed as inventor on 25 patent families. Several of these patents have been licensed to companies. The poly(2-oxazoline) chemistry developed by Prof. Hoogenboom forms the basis for the Ethizia hemostatic patch that has been approved for use in the clinic (EU approved; FDA ongoing) and has been commercialized as Ethizia by Ethicon (Johnson & Johnson) based on a license from Ghent University. In addition, he is cofounder of the spin-off company Avroxa that develops polymer therapeutics and drug delivery systems based on poly(2-oxazoline)s and polyalkyleneimines.