Peter van Puyvelde is the Lambla Award Winner of PPS for 2012. Peter is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Leuven, Belgium. In 1999, he obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the same university under the supervision of Prof. Paula Moldenaers. His PhD work dealt with the development of rheo-optical methodologies for the study of structure formation in immicible polymeric systems. After spending 6 months at the Technical University Eindhoven, working with Han Meijer and Patrick Anderson, he joined the faculty at Leuven.

His current research focuses on flow-induced crystallization and structure formation in bio-based materials. The key aspect in his work is his systematical scientific approach towards processing related problems, using a broad range of experimental methodologies such as rheology and rheo-optics. Of particular importance are his contributions to instrument development of which the rheoDSC is his last achievement. The latter is capable of measuring rheological and thermal properties simultaneously, which is beneficial in the study of, for instance, crystallization and curing reactions.

He is the author of more than 100 scientific publications, including peer-reviewed journal papers and conference proceedings. He is the co-organizer of the Annual European Rheology Conference that will be held in Leuven in 2013, and has delivered invited lectures in academic and industrial settings. He is a member of the Polymer Processing Society (PPS), Society of Rheology (SoR) and is the current president of the Belgian Group of Rheology (BGR).