I was born in Mont-sur-Marchienne on July 31, 1956. I am now Full Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and Honorary Research Director from the FNRS (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, National Fund for Scientific Research). My main research interest is the modelling, analysis, design, monitoring and control of reaction systems. This central topic area can be declined as that of distributed parameter systems, nonlinear systems, parameter and state estimation, and adaptive and adaptive extremum seeking control with application to microbial ecology, bioprocesses, chemical processes, pulp and paper processes, polymerisation reactors, environmental systems and electric systems.
Candidat en Sciences Economiques, Politiques et Sociales (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) (1977).
Degree in Electrical Engineering (Ingénieur Civil Electricien) (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) (Plus Grande Distinction) (1982).
Doctor in Applied Sciences (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) (1986).
Thèse d'Agrégation de l'Enseignement Supérieur (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium) (1994).
Assistant (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) (October 82 to August 87; September 88 to September 89).
Invited Researcher (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada) (August-September 85)
Assistant Professor (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada) (September 87 to September 88; September 90 to July 92).
Invited Professor (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada) (September 88 - September 90).
SPPS Researcher (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) (October 89 - September 90).
CNRS Associate Researcher (LAAS-CNRS, Toulouse, France) (March to June 89).
Faculty Associate of PAPRICAN (Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada) (October 1990 to September 93).
Research Associate FNRS (October 1990 to September 1995).
Associate Professor (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada) (August 92 to August 93).
Invited Lecturer (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)(October 1993 to September 1997).
Member of the GRESIP (Groupe de Recherches en Science et Ingénierie du Papier) of the Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada, since September 1995.
Senior Research Associate FNRS from October 1995 to September 1999.
Part-time Lecturer (Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) from October 1997 to September 1999.
Honorary Research Director FNRS since October 1999.
Professor (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgique) from September 1999 to September 2005.
Sabbatical stay at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada (July 2000 to June 2001).
Invited Professor (Chemical Engineering Department, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada)(2002-2004, 2 months/year).
Professeur ordinaire (Full Professor)(Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgique) since September 2005.
Co-author of 4 books : "Bioprocess Control", "Dynamical Modelling and Estimation in Wastewater Treatment Processes" (with P. Vanrolleghem), "Automatique des Bioprocédés", "On-line Estimation and Adaptive Control of Biroeactors" (with G. Bastin).
Author and co-author of more than 270 journal and conference papers. ( See Publications )
Supervision of 14 Postdoc researchers (Y.B. Hwang, W. Waldraff, S. Bourrel, Ph. Ligarius, L. Lefevre, M. Pengov, O. Bernard, D. Hochereau, M. Titica, O. Schoefs, H. Fibrianto, A. Dramé, N. Beniich, R. David), 12 Ph.D. students (B. Bouaziz (1993), N. Tali-Maamar (1994), S. Bourrel (1996), S. Renou (2000), O. Schoefs (2001), C. Delattre, I. Aksikas, P. Cougnon, F. Sauvage, N. Hudon, I. Simeonova, A. Favache) and of 7 Master students (K. Benameur (1989), M.S. Djouadi (1992), I. Cornet (1993), K. Avowlanou (2000), I. Aksikas (2002), I. Simeonova (2004), N. Hudon (2004).
Member of the supervising committee of 11 PhD students (L. Chen, V. Chotteau, S.J. Yang, G. Bangerezako, L. Coulibaly, S. Gusia, Y. Yu, Ch. Frippiat, F. Warichet, A. Provost, G. Solari )
Member of Thesis Juries in Belgium (UCL (10), RUG (3)), France (LAAS et Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse (5); INPG, Grenoble (11); ENSIC, Nancy (2); Université des Sciences et Techniques de Lille (2); Université de Technologie de Compiègne (1)), Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy (4), Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis (2), Université de Perpignan in Narbonne (2), Université Claude Bernard, Lyon I (5), Université de Paris XIII (1), Université de Paris Sud (1), Université de Montpellier II (2)), Canada (Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal (16), Queen’s University, Kingston (4)), Switzerland (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (1)), Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Hojskole (1)), Sweden (KTH, Stockhom (1)), Bulgaria (Academy of Sciences (2)), Netherlands (TU Eindhoven (1), Wageningen (1)), Morocco (Université d'El Jadida (2), Université de Cadi-Ayyad, Marrakech (1)).
Chairman of the "Commission de Diplôme Ingénieur Civil Chimiste" (Université Catholique de Louvain)(until September 2008).
Promotor of several EC and industrial contracts (coordinator of the following EC projects : “Advanced monitoring and control of wastewater treatment processes”, AMOCO (Agriculture and Fisheries (FAIR), FP5), “Efficient operation of urban wastewater treatment plants”, EOLI (International Cooperation (INCO), FP6), HCM network in Chemical Process Control (CPC)(FP5), large collaborative project “Computer-aided food processes for control engineering” (CAFé)(Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology, FP7).
Member of the Technical Board of the IFAC
Chairman of the IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Coordinating Committee on Process and Power Systems (CC6)(2002-2008).
Chairman of the IPC (International Program Committee) of CAB8 (Quebec), June 2001.
Co-chair of the NOC (National Organizing Committee) of CDPS'07 (Namur), July 2007.
Member (publication chair) of the FOC (Federal Organizing Committee) of the ECC97 (European Control Conference)(1-4 July 1997, Brussels).
Member of the IPC (International Program Committee) of Control Systems'96 (Exeter, UK), of CESA'96 (Lille, France), of the IFAC Symposia IFAC ADCHEM'97 (Banff, Canada), CAB7 (Osaka, Japan), DYCOPS-5 (Corfou, Greece), of the International Symposium BIOPROCESS SYSTEMS'98 BioPS'98 (Sofia, Bulgaria), of the IAWQ ICA (Instrumentation, Control and Automation) Conference 2001 (Malmö, Suède), of the IAWQ Conference Watermatex 2000 (Gent, Belgium), of the IFAC Symposium ADCHEM 2000 (Pisa, Italy), of the ECC'2001(Porto, Portugal), du 9ème Congrès de la Société Française de Génie des Procédés (Saint-Nazaire, 2003), de l’International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics (ICINCO, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, Portugal), du 16th IFAC World Congress (2005, Prague), du 2005 ISIC-MED (Chypre), de CAB 2007 (Cancun, Mexico), MED’08 (Ajaccio, France), CIFA 2008 (Bucarest, Roumanie), ), du 17th IFAC World Congress (2005, Seoul).
Associate Editor of Automatica.
Associate Editor of the "Journal of Process Control" (Regional Editor for Europe from 01/2009).
Associate Editor of Bioautomation.
Member of the "International Advisory Board" of Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineeering.
Session organizer : Session on Control of Biochemical Reactors (2nd IEEE Conference on Control Applications, 13-16 Septembre 1993, Vancouver, Canada), 2 Sessions on Chemical Process Control (ECC97, 1-4 July, Brussels), Session on Monitoring and Control of Bioprocesses (ECB9, 11-15 July 1999, Brussels), Session on Chemical Process Control (ECC99, 31 August-3 September 1999, Karlsruhe).
Member of IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
Member of the IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Technical Committees on : Control Education, Chemical Process Control, Control of Biotechnological Processes.
Reviewer for several journals, including Applied Artificial Intelligence, Automatica, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Biotechnology Progress, Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering Communications, Chemical Engineering Science, Computers and Chemical Engineering, Control Engineering Practice, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, IEE Proceedings on Control Theory and Applications, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, International Journal on Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, International Journal of Control, International Journal on Robust and Nonlinear Control, Journal A, Journal of Biotechnology, Journal of Process Control, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Latin American Applied Research, Mathematical Modelling of Systems, Mathematical Reviews, Neurocomputing, Optimal Control Applications and Methods, Systems and Control Letters, The Chemical Engineering Journal, Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control, Water Research.
Best Referee Award for the Journal of Process Control (1999).
Outstanding Reviewer, Automatica (2003-2004)
Outstanding Service Award, IFAC (2008)
IFAC fellow (2010)
Science citation index : 1800 (10/05/2011)
H-index : 27 (14/12/2010)