People

Simon Kuhn is a full professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven. Simon completed his PhD at ETH Zurich and his undergraduate studies at TU Munich. After a postdoctoral position at MIT, Simon joined University College London as assistant professor before moving to Leuven in 2014. He was awarded starting and consolidator grants by the European Research Council for his work on intensified flow reactors for multiphase reaction systems and particle synthesis. Simon is currently editor for Chemical Engineering Science and member of the EFCE Working Parties on Multiphase Fluid Flow and Process Intensification.

Khang earned his BSc in Advanced Biotechnology (in collaboration with Michigan State University) from Can Tho University (Vietnam) in 2014. He subsequently joined a Combined Master’s–PhD program at Kyung Hee University (South Korea), where he obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering (Integrated Engineering major) in 2022 with the thesis “Development of a microfluidic f low chemistry system for automatic synthesis of on demand nanomaterials” under the supervision of Prof. Tae Seok Seo. He also worked on the prototyping of point-of-care diagnostic devices and the development of Taylor vortex reactors. Since January 2025, he has been a research associate at the Center for Continuous & Intensified TEChnology (HITEC), KU Leuven, where he focuses on scaling up microreactor technologies and translating flow chemistry innovations toward industrial applications.

Jinu is a Research Manager in the Department of Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven, where he oversees scale-up facilities for intensified and electrified technologies and leads industry collaborations. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kerala (India), a Master’s in Chemical Process Engineering from University College London (UK), and a PhD from KU Leuven (2017) on ultrasound assisted extraction in microchannels. He subsequently advanced through research roles at KU Leuven, developing intensified and ultrasound assisted flow technologies for solvent extraction, metal recovery, CO₂ capture, and multiphase processing, and establishing the HITEC Industrial Service Centre. Earlier, he held engineering and managerial roles in the API and fine chemicals industries, focusing on scale-up, technology transfer, and continuous manufacturing

Filip studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, earning a MSc degree in 2016. Afterwards he obtained a PhD in Chemical Sciences from the same university in 2022. Already as a BSc student, he developed an interest in fluid mechanics, mathematical modelling, and computer programing. With the guidance of Prof. Igor Plazl he focused these interests in researching the use of the lattice Boltzmann method to model fluid flows in microchannels. During his PhD he also got interested in computational optimization and parallel computing. As a result, after his tenure as a PhD student at the University of Ljubljana expired in late 2020, he joined the Parallel and Distributed Systems Laboratory at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana. In the group, led by Dr. Gregor Kosec, he researched the application of meshless finite difference methods in solid mechanics, modelling biodegradation of jellyfish in marine environments, as well as various other applied computational projects. He joined Prof. Simon Kuhn’s group in April 2024. He currently works on modelling acoustofluidic phenomena – mainly the acoustic streaming and acoustic radiation forces exerted on solid particles in acoustic fields.

Jakob earned his BSc and MSc in Molecular Science at FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. Under the guidance of Prof. Thomas Wirth, he completed his PhD (2023) at Cardiff University in the UK where he developed his research interests in organic electrochemistry and electrochemical microreactors. In 2023, he joined the group of Prof. Simon Kuhn where he is currently working on the combination of electrochemical and organic reactions in microfluidic systems.

Kardelen earned her PhD (2022) from Boğaziçi University (Turkey) under the supervision of Prof. Sezen Soyer-Uzun and Prof. Alper Uzun, where she worked on the design of red mud-based alkali-activated materials exhibiting adsorption performance and photocatalytic activity. Since April 2022, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Simon Kuhn at KU Leuven. She is currently a Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) postdoctoral fellow in the same group. Her current research interests mainly focus on photooxidation reactions and developing visible-light active photocatalysts for removing antibiotics from wastewater.

Boaz earned his BSc and MSc Environmental Sciences (specialisation Environmental Technology) at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. After specializing and working on bioelectrochemical systems for his master thesis and internship, he started his PhD at KU Leuven in December 2025. His research focusses on electrochemically oxidizing alcohols in a microfluidic reactor.

Mario earned his MSc. Degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) on February 2025, focusing mainly on Chemical Reaction Engineering and computational fluid dynamics. As of September 2025 he began his PhD in Ku Leuven in the group of prof. Simon Kuhn as part of the PROSPER Doctoral Network. His current research focuses on the design of industrial photocatalytic reactors for gas-liquid mixtures.

Maryam obtained her BSc in Applied Chemistry from K. N. Toosi University of Technology (Iran) in 2018, and afterwards she earned her MSc in Industrial Chemistry from University of Milan (Italy) in 2025. Her master’s thesis focused on the generation of N oxazolidinone radicals through novel photochemical pathways. In September 2025, she joined Prof. Simon Kuhn’s research group at KU Leuven as a PhD researcher. Her current work focuses on the synthesis of polymeric and lipid nanoparticles for drug delivery applications.

After completing an Engineering degree in Biotechnology at the higher national university of biotechnology in Algeria, followed by an MSc in Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing at the University of Strathclyde defending his thesis about Leveraging Bayesian Optimization in Design of Experiments (DoE) for Enhanced Crystallization Process Development, Youcef joined the Kuhn Group at KU Leuven as a doctoral researcher as part of the PROCRYSTAL Doctoral network. His current work focuses on the crystallization of therapeutic biomolecules using droplet-based microfluidics. He is particularly interested in combining experimental platforms with computational modeling to accelerate process development.

Louise earned an Engineering Degree in Chemistry from Toulouse National Polytechnic Institute (FR) and a MSc in Production Processes and Quality of Health Products in 2024 from Toulouse Faculty of Pharmacy (FR). She did her master’s thesis at Roche (CH), focusing on understanding amorphous phases in crystalline active pharmaceutical ingredients. In May 2025, she began her PhD at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine and KU Leuven, in the group of Prof. Simon Kuhn, as part of the PROCRYSTAL Doctoral Network. Her research focuses on the crystallization of industrially relevant peptides.

Silay obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey, where her master’s thesis ‘Computational investigation of transport phenomena in packed adsorption bed’ involved the numerical analysis of coupled heat and mass transfer processes. She joined the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) in December 2024 to study multiphase flow phenomena in the porous transport layer of electrolysers and is currently pursuing her PhD at VKI and KU Leuven in collaboration with Prof. Simon Kuhn. Her research focuses on high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics simulations of two-phase flow in the microporous regions of proton exchange membrane electrolysers.

Huiyu obtained her BSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Sun Yat-sen University (China) in 2021. She then pursued the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Programme in Nanomedicine for Drug Delivery, earning her MSc degrees from Université Paris Cité (France) and Università di Pavia (Italy). Her master’s thesis focused on “Optimization of the Ethanol Removal Step of Liposome Production Using Microfluidics”. In September 2023, Huiyu joined Prof. Simon Kuhn’s research group at KU Leuven as a PhD researcher, where she works on the continuous synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles in ultrasonic microreactors for drug delivery applications. In 2024, she was awarded an FWO SB PhD Fellowship.

Caixia earned double Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Technical University of Denmark in 2022. During her Master’s studies, she focused on CFD simulations in fluidized bed reactors. In July 2023, Caixia started her PhD in Prof. Simon Kuhn’s research group at KU Leuven. Her current research explores the use of ultrasound to manipulate droplet generation and coalescence in microfluidic devices.

Lorijn received both his BSc (2020) and MSc (2022) in Chemical Engineering from KU Leuven, after which he started his PhD in the group of Prof. Simon Kuhn. His work focuses on crystallization, primarily aimed at providing a deeper understanding of secondary nucleation’s working mechanism using experimental approaches. He was recipient of the IAR-CIT Master Thesis Prize 2022 for his work titled “Design of a microfluidic batch crystallizer to study nucleation in quiescent conditions and in the presence of a heterogeneous fluid” and was awarded with a Fundamental FWO PhD Fellowship in 2023.

Pavel earned his BSc in Chemistry from UCT Prague in 2019. Then, in 2021, he completed his MSc in Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at the same university. Since then, he has been pursuing a double degree PhD at both UCT Prague and KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. Miroslav Šoóš and Prof. Simon Kuhn. His research focuses on CFD modelling of turbulent multiphase flows employing the Euler-Lagrange approach. His work deals with experimental and numerical characterization of stirred gas-liquid and liquid-liquid systems including all the key phenomena like fluid particle breakage and coalescence, and mass transfer. Experimental work also extends into processes, where viscosity changes over time, such as spherical crystallization.

Xiaotong earned his BEng in Chemical Engineering from Chongqing University in 2018 and his MSc in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University in 2021. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. at KU Leuven, working under the supervision of Prof. Simon Kuhn. His research focuses on integrating computational fluid dynamics with Machine Learning to enhance the design and performance optimization of chemical reactor. His recent work explores data-driven correction of coarse-mesh CFD simulations, accelerated flow prediction, and their applications in stirred-tank reactors and complex mixing processes.

Elena earned her BSc in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (IT) in 2018, and afterwards joined a Double Degree program, obtaining the MSc in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (option: Process Engineering) and KU Leuven (option: Environmental Enigneering), with the thesis ‘Design of a seeding section for continuous microfluidic paracetamol crystallization’ under the supervision of Prof. Simon Kuhn. She has started her PhD in September 2021 in the group of Prof. Simon Kuhn, where she moved from organic to inorganic crystallization, looking into methodologies to accelerate and optimize zeolite synthesis via interzeolite conversion. In 2022, she was granted an FWO SB PhD Fellowship.