Kristof Demeestere

Position/title: 
associate professor
Institution: 
Ghent University (UGent)
Faculty: 
Faculty of Bioscience Engineering
Department: 
Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology
Group: 
EnVOC
Personal/department website
Research interests: 
environmental chemistry and technology
(emerging) organic micropollutants
water pollution
organic trace analysis
(high-resolution) mass spectrometry
treatment technology
advanced oxidation processes
Short CV / biography / description of scientific focus and achievements: 

Kristof Demeestere (°1976) obtained his PhD degree in Bioscience Engineering: Environmental Technology at Ghent University, Belgium, in 2005. Since 2009, he is appointed as (currently associate) professor in the EnVOC (Environmental Organic Chemistry and Technology) research group. Analytical issues related to emerging and bioactive organic trace compounds in environmental (mainly water) and biological matrices are a central topic in his research. Scientific knowledge and experience has been built-up with state-of-the-art sample preparation and innovative chromatographic and (high-resolution) mass spectrometry based instrumental analysis. Research activities deal with both fundamental and applied issues. In a second and complementary research line, focus is put on environmental technology. Particularly, the degradation of organic micropollutants is studied by both biological and physical-chemical advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) like (membrane) biofiltration, ozonation, peroxone oxidation and heterogeneous photocatalysis. Early 2016, K. Demeestere has co-authored about 65 publications in SCI-journals (H-index: 20; > 1600 citations), and contributed to about 90 presentations at international conferences.

Relevant publications: 
Demeestere, K.; Petrović, M.; Gros, M.; Dewulf, J.; Van Langenhove, H. and Barceló, D. (2010). Trace analysis of antidepressants in environmental waters by molecularly imprinted polymers based solid-phase extraction followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 396(2), 825-837.
De Witte, B.; Van Langenhove, H.; Demeestere, K. and Dewulf, J. (2011). Advanced oxidation of pharmaceuticals: chemical analysis and biological assessment of degradation products. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 41(3), 215-242.
Van Doorslaer, X.; Dewulf, J.; De Maerschalck, J.; Van Langenhove, H. and Demeestere, K. (2015). Heterogeneous photocatalysis of moxifloxacin in hospital effluent: effect of selected matrix constituents. Chemical Engineering Journal, 261, 9-16.
Vergeynst, L.; Van Langenhove, H. and Demeestere, K. (2015). Balancing the false negative and positive rates in suspect screening with high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometry using multivariate statistics. Analytical Chemistry, 87(4), 2170-2177.
Vergeynst, L., Van Langenhove, H. and Demeestere, K. (2015). Trends in liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry for multi-residue analysis of organic micropollutants in aquatic environments. Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 67, 192-208.