Derk Jan Van Dijken Email and Phone Number

Heading a specialized group of process engineers. Accountable for process safety, automation, process configuration and continuous improvement processes. Member of the Operations Team. Strategic planning, management and steering of long-term cross-organizational projects and progression. Implementing guidelines and requirements for process safety, performing EHS reviews and ensuring incident investigation, corrective actions and reporting.Process management: focusing on optimizing technical processes, procedures and responsibility for innovation in the plant (new technology, producing new products, procedures, ...).Technology management: overseeing technical design documentation process for correctness and timeliness. Providing input to other disciplines on the practicality of initial design goals and impact to the overall project timeline.

Heading a medium-sized, heterogeneous group of research engineers, technologists and technicians in the fields of product engineering and analytical chemistry. Responsible for product quality, QC-lab and scale-up and proactive coordination thereof between Manufacturing, R&D, Product Management, Technical Marketing and Total Quality Management.Stimulating and applying innovative, customer focused, out-of-the-box solution strategies in projects or in solving production issues and implementation of novel ideas and concepts leading to improvements with respect to quality, safety and cost-efficiency. Responsible for creating, maintaining and applying knowledge and know-how on expert level in the chemistry and technology of a wide variety of products, processes and analytics at BASF Heereenveen.The heart of this role is ensuring fast and reliable introduction of new manufacturing and analytical processes and being responsible for control and maintenance of production recipes and analytical methods.Note: the analytical group was split off in June 2022.

Development of innovative products to match the needs of the printing and packaging end-user markets. Coordinating and advancing knowledge and output in the field of inkjet printing on an industrial scale. Other efforts include building up an e-learning program on site from scratch and the construction of a central quality control laboratory; whiteboard to commissioning.

Als vrijwilliger bij Staatsbosbeheer ondersteun ik de boswachter publiek in tal van activiteiten en projecten.

At Humanitas Groningen (Nederland), I supported refugees that have recently come to The Netherlands by being a language coach on an individual basis in order to help them improve their Dutch and learn about the culture of their new home. This work was on a voluntary basis.

Throughout my post-doctoral stay in the research lab of Prof. Stefan Hecht, one of the prime goals was the development of new functional molecules and materials, ranging from the development of a new family of light-responsive photochromes and their utilization in different applications, to catalysis and sensing.

During my Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Ben L. Feringa, I worked on the rational design, synthesis, and application of new responsive supramolecular systems.The main goal was integration of functional molecular building blocks into larger, micro- or macroscopic systems with retention or enhancement of the molecular functions in the supramolecular assemblies which can ultimately respond to external stimuli.This has led to the development of ion-conducting bilayers, photoresponsive nanotubes, and a new generation of molecular motors. Furthermore, systematic libraries were prepared and analyzed in order to understand what the limits of our self-assembled systems are and to allow us to predict macroscopic effects through molecular design.

Enantioselective catalytic synthesis of syn deoxypropionate units combining asymmetric catalysis and organic synthesis.

Research project for Solvay Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with the University of Groningen, on the chiral lithiation of piperazine using phosphoramidite chemistry.