Wim Pyckhout-Hintzen studied Physical Chemistry at the University of Antwerp, (UIA), Belgium from 1978 to 1985 and graduated in the Department of Structural Chemistry of Prof. H. Geise in the field of molecular orbital constrained gas electron diffraction with emphasis on non-bonded attractions from ab initio calculations.
For this PhD thesis he was awarded the Jan-Stas Price of the Academy of Science in Brussels (1986). After 6 months of single crystal crystallography, Wim joined the Forschungszentrum as a Postdoc with Prof. Tasso Springer on the topic of rubber elasticity of polymers and its understanding by means of the small angle neutron scattering technique. Based in Jülich he spent another year of postdoctoral fellowship at EXXON Corporate Research, Annandale, USA in the field of anionic polymerization and physical characterization techniques after which he got permanently engaged with the Institute for Neutronscattering of Prof. Dieter Richter.
His current responsabilities are the neutron small angle scattering spectrometer KWS1, the rheo-mechanical lab and the small angle xray facility. His research interests combine all three and deal with molecular rheology and rubber elasticity, i.e. the statics and dynamics of polymers of different architectures and networks in filled und unfilled state in external fields. Insitu or real-time studies in quenched state are the central topics and provide the necessary links between the methods.
His main collaboration partners over the years are Prof. E. Straube, University of Halle/Saale and the group around Prof. TCB. McLeish, IRC,Leeds.