Prof. Jaap Schouten (1959) has been professor of Chemical Reactor Engineering at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology since 1998. His research focuses on improving existing reactor systems and developing modern and innovative reactor concepts and integrated reaction systems for a broad range of applications, such as hydrogen production, catalyst screening, fine chemical synthesis, and the production of bulk chemicals. Schouten investigates, for example, microreactors, multiphase reactors such as slurry bubble columns, and other new types of structured reactors which are important for the low-energy and environmentally-efficient preparation of chemical products.
Original and versatile
The countless number of STW projects which Schouten has led over the years, point to the originality and versatility of his approach. In his research Schouten concentrates on reactor configurations for both microsystems and innovative variants of conventional large-scale systems. This enables him to match the reactor systems to the demands of the chemical industry. Schouten often ensures considerable support from the companies involved in terms of money, personnel or technical infrastructure. Due to his versatility the technologist cooperates with a wide range of companies. He not only approaches large chemical concerns such as Shell, DSM, Akzo Nobel, Organon and Engelhard, but also less obvious companies such as Ford and Toyota, together with who he developed kinetic reaction models to support control systems for more efficient and cleaner diesel engines.
In addition to more than 200 scientific publications and conference contributions, he also has five patents to his name. Moreover as a supervisor or associate supervisor he has been involved in the research of more than 30 Ph.D. students. The STW board describes Jaap Schouten as an enthusiastic scientist, who is always aware of applications for his research and who tries to utilise opportunities to apply it.
Simon Stevin Meesterschap
The Simon Stevin Meesterschap is an honorary title awarded by the Technology Foundation STW to highly-prominent technological researchers at Dutch universities and para-university research institutes. In addition to an outstanding research record over a period of many years, Simon Stevin Meesters must also have successfully demonstrated the ability to devote attention to stimulating the utilisation of new knowledge. With the appointment of Prof. Schouten, STW counts thirteen researchers with this honorary title.