Biography
Renko de Vries graduated in Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University (1993). He obtained his PhD (with honor) from Delft University of Technology, on a thesis on the theory of fluid membranes, written under the supervision of prof. Theo Odijk. Next, for post-doctoral work, he joined the group of prof. Eric Kaler at the Chemical Engineering Dept of the University of Delaware (Newark, DE), where he investigated (both theoretically and experimentally) polymerization reactions in microemulsions, In 2000 he started as an Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, in the group now called Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter. Currently he is an Associate Professor in the same group. With his research team, he aims at understanding and manipulating the physical properties of soft protein materials. Current work on natural proteins especially deals with plant proteins as structural elements in food and sustainable materials. For the work on designed proteins the current emphasis is on assembly at solid-liquid interfaces.