Dirk J. Broer is materials scientist specialized in polymer structuring. He joined Philips (Eindhoven, Netherlands) in 1973 where he developed materials for data storage, telecommunication and display optics. From 2003 to 2010 he was senior research fellow and vice president at the Philips Research Laboratories. In 2010, he was appointed as full-time professor in Eindhoven to chair the Department Functional Organic Materials with a research emphasis on clean technologies as energy harvesting, water treatment and healthcare. From 2015 he is a staff member at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems in Eindhoven and coordinates a program on responsive soft materials. Prof. Broer is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In total, he has 275 publications in peer-reviewed journals and more than 120 US patents.