Cees Dekker

Who is Cees Dekker?

Cornelis "Cees" Dekker is a Dutch scientist known for his research on carbon nanotubes, single-molecule biophysics, and nanobiology. He has more than 240 publications, including more than 20 papers in Nature and Science., Nine of his group publications have been cited more than 1000 times, 64 papers got cited more than 100 times, and in 2001, his group work was selected as "breakthrough of the year" by the journal Science. Dekker’s research style is characterized by a strong drive and enthusiasm for science, longterm vision, and experimental research directed at exploring novel phenomena in unknown territories. In recognition of his achievements, Dekker has been elected Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow to the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics. He was awarded a number of national and international prizes, including the 2001 Agilent Europhysics Prize, the 2012 Nanoscience Prize, and the 2003 Spinozapremie. He also was granted an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University, Belgium.

He received a PhD in Experimental Physics at the University of Utrecht in 1988. From 1988 to 1993 Dekker was an Assistant Professor at the University of Utrecht; in these years he also worked in the United States as Visiting Researcher at IBM Research. It was during this period that Dekker carried out research on magnetic spin systems and on noise in superconductors and semiconductors. In 1993 he was appointed as Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology. In the mid-1990s Dekker and his team achieved success with the discovery of the fascinating electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, the first single-molecule transistor and other nanoscience. In 1999 he was appointed to the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professorship, a chair for outstanding young scientists. In 2000, he was appointed in a regular full professorship in Molecular Biophysics at the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Delft. In 2007, he was appointed as a Distinguished University Professor at Delft. From 2010-2012, he was the inaugurating Chair of a new Department of Bionanoscience at the Delft University. Since 202 Dekker also acts as the Director of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft.