SABIC, established in 1976, is the 3rd largest chemical company. Headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, SABIC employs more than 33,000 people in around 50 countries, working together to make the building blocks of the modern world ever better, ever more efficiently, and ever more sustainably.

SABIC’s Technology & Innovation department develops new solutions to daily life in the area of the Business Units Petrochemicals, Specialties, Agri-nutrients and Metals. With Innovation hubs in U.S.A., Europe, Middle East and Asia, SABIC develops new solutions to the world, leading to 150 new product launches yearly, and almost 12000 patent filings. These solutions are used in amongst others Healthcare, Food, Automotive applications.

In Europe, SABIC employs about 550 researchers of which about 27 are located in the SABIC Technology Center Geleen, the Netherlands, who are involved in research focusing on development of new polymers. These polymer research activities are highly interdisciplinary (a.o. sustainability, polymer catalysis, polymerization, material science)

Dr. Henk Verhoogt received his PhD-degree in 1992 from the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, where he worked on the morphology, properties and stability of thermoplastic polymer blends. Then he joined as post-doctoral fellow the group of prof. B. Favis at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Canada, working on biodegradable polymer blends based on polyhydroxyalkanoates and starch. He joined General Electric Plastics in 1996 as Product Development Specialist in the field of polyesters (PBT, PC). Since 2007 he is employed at SABIC and worked in the areas of polypropylene product development for automotive applications, ideation & innovation processes, technology scouting, new business exploration. His research interests include applied product development for polyolefins and engineering thermoplastics different with special attention to the effect of reversible chemistry on property profiles.

Dr. Theo Hoeks received his PhD-degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Nijmegen (1989), followed by a post-academic training on polymers (Synthesis, Properties, Processing) at the Technical University of Eindhoven (Top Education). He joint General Electric Plastics in 1988 as a product developer, and was involved in areas like flame retardancy and polymer stabilization. Furthermore, he led the development of new anti-static agents for polycarbonate, and designed new polycarbonate polymerization processes for special copolymers. More recently, he became advisor for programs aimed at the development of Smart Materials. Since 2004, He is an Industrial Advisor at the departments Polymer Technology and Functional Organic Materials and Devices at the Technical University in Eindhoven (TU/e).

SABIC Technology Center Geleen - Geleen, The Netherlands