Ilyesse BIHI

Ilyesse Bihi holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering (Lille University, FR) and dual PhDs in Chemical Engineering (University of Florida, US) and Micro- and Nanotechnologies (Lille University/IEMN, FR), with part of his doctoral work conducted at INRA France. His PhD research on micro-organism detachment in microfluidic environments was recognised with the 2017 Pierre Isoard Award (ASPEC, Paris). He carried out postdoctoral research at the Biomechanics and Bioengineering Laboratory (BMBI, UTC/Sorbonne University Alliance), where he optimised a microfluidic platform for ex-vivo platelet production, a concept later acquired by HemostOD (Switzerland) for market implementation. Since 2019, he is a member of the µFlow group at VUB (Chemical Engineering Department), where he has developed microfluidic chips for in-situ production of drug-loaded microparticles and is working on embedding vortices into next-generation chromatographic columns to enhance separation performance. He is VUB lead scientist in the European project CELLAGRI and a coordinating team member of the Pathfinder European project VortexLC and has contributed to multiple Flemish funding programs (Moonshot-VLAIO, Catalisti-ICON, Innoviris). He teaches in two Master's-level courses at VUB (Micro- and Nanofabrication; Microfluidics for Sustainable Chemical Processes), co-supervises seven Master's students and mentors three PhD researchers. Since 2023, he manages one of the laboratories in the Chemical Engineering Department at VUB.