Composite materials
Composite Materials Group at KU Leuven
Welcome to the webpage of the Composite Materials Group in the Department of Materials Engineering (MTM) of KU Leuven. Research on polymer matrix composites was started by Prof. Ignaas Verpoest in 1982. Now, the Composite Materials Group (CMG) is one of the worldwide recognised centres for composite materials research, which hosted Toray Chair for Composite Materials from 2012 to 2022 with Prof. Ignaas Verpoest, Prof. Stepan V. Lomov, and Prof. David Seveno as Toray Professors. The group is coordinated by Prof. Yentl Swolfs. A lively description of the CMG projects, inventions and innovations within 1982-2013 is presented in the book of "30 Years of Composites research @ Leuven".
Research
Our research on composites ranges from very fundamental to very applied and/or industry oriented studies. There are currently five main research themes in our group. The research of CMG is performed in close collaboration within Leuven Material Research Centre and Strategic Initiative for Materials.
Team
The Composite Materials Group is a very diverse and international community, consisting of about 60 professors, post-docs, PhD students and technical staff.
CMG research on composite suitcase in spotlight: appearing on KU Leuven homepage
CMG’s longstanding research on composite suitcases has caught the attention of the KU Leuven Stories team. On the occasion of 600 years of KU Leuven, an extensive interview-based article, featuring Profs. Ignaas Verpoest and Yentl Swolfs explaining the fruitful collaboration with Samsonite, has been published in KU Leuven Stories (The Power of Wonder). Titled On a journey with materials science (Op reis met materiaalkunde in Dutch), the article now appears on KU Leuven’s homepage.
Research topics
The research competences of this group are divided into five main categories:
Contact info
Department of Materials Engineering
Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, bus 2450
3001 LEUVEN
Belgium
CMG Awards
Every year, CMG gives two awards for Best Collaborative Science-Engineering and Best Collaborative Outreach work.
Collaborations
The research of CMG is performed in close collaboration within Leuven Material Research Centre and Strategic Initiative for Materials (SIM), a program of the Flemish Government that started in 2009.