Prof. Bert Klumperman is currently holder of the South African Research Chair on Advanced Macromolecular Architectures at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). He obtained his PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology (1994) under the joint supervision of Profs Ton German and Ken O’Driscoll. After almost a decade of industrial research at DSM Research (Geleen, the Netherlands) he started his academic career in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) in 1995. He obtained his DSc from Stellenbosch University with Prof Mallon as his promoter. At present, he has an international group of approximately twenty students and post-docs. They work on three research themes. The first theme is the design, synthesis and characterization of complex polymer architectures. A main focus in this theme is the investigation of complex molecular brushes. The second theme is morphology control on the nanometer length scale. Self-assembly of the complex molecular brushes is one route, but also surface modification of nanofibers and nanoparticles are topics that belong to this theme. The third theme is explorative chemistry and fundamental studies of polymerization processes. Polymerization via Cu-catalyzed alkyne-azide click chemistry is one of the key subjects in this research theme.
Bert is editor of European Polymer Journal (Elsevier). He is frequently invited for lectures at international conferences as well as for participation in international advisory boards of conferences.

Bert received an A-rating from the National Research Foundation (South Africa, 2007), which was renewed in 2012. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa (2008) and received the Rector’s Award for Excellent Research (Stellenbosch, 2009). His Research Chair was extended for a second five-year term at the end of 2010.