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Jens Oelerich appointed new Professor Sustainable & Functional Textiles at Saxion

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Jens Oelerich will start as Professor Sustainable & Functional Textiles at Saxion from 01-06-2024. He succeeds Dr Jan Mahy who will step down as professor in summer 2024.

With 15 researchers, the Sustainable & Functional Textiles (SFT) professorship is one of Saxion’s largest professorships and a leader in technical and applied textile research in the Netherlands.

Jens is currently Associate Professor on the Sustainable Textiles research line at SFT. He is also involved in the master’s programme Innovative Textile Development and the bachelor’s programme Fashion & Textile Technologies.

Connecting the principles of chemistry, materials science and environmental science to make textiles smarter and more sustainable is what drives Jens. He studied chemistry at Saxion and at the University of Groningen before getting his PhD in bio-inspired chemistry in water in 2015. After his time in Groningen, Jens moved back to Ochtrup in Germany with his wife and now has two daughters. In his spare time, he is active as a volleyball trainer and coach, among other things. At Saxion, Jens has worked on the development of recycling technologies and analysis methods for textiles, among other things. Most recently, he has coordinated the research line on sustainable textiles and, together with his colleagues, founded the Circular Textile Lab.

Jens on his new position: “Textiles play an important role in everyone’s life. We use textiles not only to dress ourselves, but also to build roads, make our homes livable and even for artificial heart valves. This versatility of textiles makes this field particularly fascinating and challenging. Yet this major influence of textiles on our daily lives also brings major challenges. In the future, clothes should be produced mainly from circular and bio-based raw materials, but textiles can also serve as a platform to create smart and functional materials. At SFT, our highly enthusiastic colleagues, extensive facilities, good cooperation with F&TT, ITD and chemistry courses, and rich history and experience make us particularly well equipped to make an important contribution to this. I am very pleased and honoured to become a lecturer of this unique research group and look forward to connecting education, research and industry to make a lasting contribution together to the future of the textile industry in the Netherlands.”

Project Updates

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22 May 2024

Jens Oelerich appointed new Professor Sustainable & Functional Textiles at Saxion

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Jens Oelerich will start as Professor Sustainable & Functional Textiles at Saxion from 01-06-2024. He succeeds Dr Jan Mahy who will step down as professor in summer 2024. With 15 researchers, the Sustainable & Functional Textiles (SFT) professorship is one of Saxion’s largest professorships and a leader […]

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