Paul van der Heide is the Director of the Materials and Component Analysis (MCA) department at imec, situated in Leuven, Belgium. The scope of MCA is:

a)      To support the materials characterization needs of imec’s nanotechnology R&D programs (capabilities include APT, ARPES, ERD, HAXPES, IR, Raman, PEEM, PL, RBS, SEM, SIMS, SPM, TEM, UPS, XPS, augmented with access to synchrotron capabilities).

b)      To explore, develop and implement the materials characterization capabilities required by tomorrow’s nano-electronics/spintronics manufacturing industry. Materials of interest include Graphene, TMDs and CNTs.

Prior to moving to imec, Paul held positions at:

a)      GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Malta, NY, USA (where he headed the end-to-end analytical labs support for high volume semiconductor chip manufacturing and R&D).

b)      Samsung, Austin, TX, USA (where he established/managed the surface characterization labs for supporting high volume semiconductor chip manufacturing).

c)       The University of Houston, TX, USA (where he lectured in physical chemistry and surface analysis, while also managing the MRSEC SIMS-XPS facility).

Paul earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, has authored/co-authored over 250 publications, is sole author of two books published through Wiley (X‐Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy | Wiley Online Books, Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry | Wiley Online Books), and has been co-chair of the bi-annual FCMN conference since 2019 (FCMN2026).