# Michael Debije

**Source**: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/michael-debije
**Parent**: https://www.tue.nl/en/education/bachelor-college/bachelor-chemical-engineering-and-chemistry

Associate Professor

# Michael Debije

- [PURE url](https://research.tue.nl/en/persons/michael-g-debije/ "Research Portal")

##### Contact

[m.g.debije@tue.nl](#)

[+31 40 247 5881](tel:+31402475881)

[Helix-oost 0.23](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=51.44618,5.488216)

##### Department / Institute

[Chemical Engineering and Chemistry](https://www.tue.nl/en/our-university/departments/chemical-engineering-and-chemistry)

[Institute for Complex Molecular Systems](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/institutes/institute-for-complex-molecular-systems)

[EIRES](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/eires)

##### Group

[Stimuli-responsive Funct. Materials & Dev.](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/stimuli-responsive-functional-materials-devices)

[ICMS Core](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/icms-core-member)

EIRES Research

## RESEARCH PROFILE

Michael Debije is an Associate Professor in the research group Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials and Devices. His current research topics are broadly in the control of light in the built environment and microscale soft robotics. To this end, he works on a variety of projects, including

- Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs), colorful, adaptable solar energy generators that could be ideal for use in urban settings;
- Infrared Control Windows which can automatically switch between heat-reflecting states in summer to heat transmitting states in winter;
- Responsive Polymeric Actuators and Robots capable of responding to changes in their environment; and
- LSC-Photomicroreactors to allow sunlight-driven, off-grid production of fine chemicals among others.

The devices generated are designed for use in urban settings, but may find application in new areas like greenhouses, automobile windows, medical applications, outer space and even fashion accessories.

Michael likes to generate new areas of research at the boundaries of traditional disciplines, creating potentially disruptive technologies.  He loves to work not just with chemists and physicists, but with fashion designers, farmers and building architects as well, and he hopes to inspire his students to do the same.  He finds it important to bring his work to the general public, for comment and criticism, and he tries to publish not only in high-ranked periodicals, but across a wide variety of journals, and to have several contributions to the popular press as well.

> I enjoy bridging the traditional gaps between disciplines and between academics and society

## ACADEMIC BACKGROUND

Michael Debije received a MSc in High Energy Physics from Iowa State University (USA) in 1994 with a thesis describing a theoretical treatment of a new breast tumor detector.  After a year of teaching in Frydek-Mistek in the Czech Republic, he moved in 2000 to the University of Rochester (USA) where he received a PhD in Biophysics for his study of radical transport and trapping in oligonucleotide crystals of DNA.  Continuing to The Netherlands for a postdoc position at the Interfaculty Reactor Institute at TU Delft in the group of John Warman, he studied charge transport in liquid crystalline discotics and organometallics.  In 2003 he joined the staff of the Stimuli-responsive Functional Materials and Devices (SFD) group at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He is currently an Assistant Professor under Prof. Albert Schenning and responsible for the Energy cluster within SFD.

## Key Publications

- [See all publications](https://research.tue.nl/en/persons/michael-g-debije//publications/)

- [### Temperature-responsive luminescent solar concentrators: tuning energy transfer in a liquid crystalline matrix

  Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

  (2018)

  J.A.H.P. Sol,V. Dehm,R. Hecht,F. Würthner,A.P.H.J. Schenning,M.G. Debije](https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/a4434b9d-c2de-440a-9a8f-2c12c7cd9149)
- [### A leaf-inspired luminescent solar concentrator for energy-efficient continuous-flow photochemistry

  Angewandte Chemie - International Edition

  (2017)

  D. Cambié,F. Zhao,M.G. Debije,T. Noël](https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/1ec729b9-cad2-4c51-9979-1094024c9352)
- [### A chaotic self-oscillating sunlight driven polymer actuator

  Nature Communications

  (2016)

  K. Kumar,Chr. Knie,D. Bleger,M.A. Peletier,H.B. Friedrich,S. Hecht,D.J. Broer,M.G. Debije,A.P.H.J. Schenning](https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/fcabd16c-e78f-4f13-a9df-530d577bbc34)
- [### Electrically tunable infrared reflector with adjustable bandwidth broadening up to 1100 nm

  Journal of Materials Chemistry A

  (2016)

  H. Khandelwal,M.G. Debije,T.J. White,A.P.H.J. Schenning](https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/2f6ef79a-3c96-42aa-a302-6500a98a5ed9)
- [### Thirty years of luminescent solar concentrator research : solar energy for the built environment

  Advanced Energy Materials

  (2012)

  M.G. Debije,P.P.C. Verbunt](https://research.tue.nl/nl/publications/90e0c6d9-27e9-4f3c-b051-cc4ce133a4e1)

## How TU/e technology brings the endless power of the sun to your home (and car)

The potential of solar power is enormous: our planet intercepts some 173,000 terawatts of radiation from the sun at any time, 10,000 times more power than the planet’s population uses. Harnessing this almost endless power source has been the driving force of much [research](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bm86KU8Zrg&feature=youtu.be) at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The research covers a broad terrain of expertise and interests, ranging from the elemental building blocks of solar cells and upscaling of technology to industrial production, to enhancing the aesthetics of solar panels or application in solar-powered cars. And with success: it is estimated that almost one third of all solar cells worldwide contain technology pioneered by our researchers. We take you step by step through the whole chain: from fundamental research in the lab to the application in everyday life.

- [Read more about TU/e research on solar](https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/features/how-tue-technology-brings-the-endless-power-of-the-sun-to-your-home-and-car)

## Current Educational Activities

- [Physics of light and lighting design](https://tue.osiris-student.nl/#/onderwijscatalogus/extern/cursus/?cursuscode=7HK30&collegejaar=2025)

## Ancillary Activities

- Associate Editor Optical Materials, Elsevier