Rate My Professor Pieter Verboven

Pieter Verboven serves as Industrial Research Manager and Head of the Subdivision MeBioS Technologies-PV in the Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS) within the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven. He earned his Master’s degree in Bio-engineering in 1994 with great distinction and his PhD in Applied Biological Sciences in 1999, both from KU Leuven. Following his doctorate, he joined the Laboratory of Postharvest Technology as a postdoctoral researcher funded by FWO-Vlaanderen starting in October 2000. In his current roles, he holds an IOF fellowship and contributes to technology transfer in agro-food processes. Verboven supervises PhD students and has served as supervisor or jury member for several doctoral theses.

His research focuses on solutions for design and optimization in agro-food applications using computer-aided engineering, with expertise in heat and mass transfer, fluid flow, porous media, kinetics modeling, multiphase systems, microfluidics, and multiphysics in biological systems. Key areas include postharvest technology, non-destructive X-ray CT imaging for fruit microstructure and defect detection, controlled atmosphere storage, spray applications, and CFD simulations for supply chains and drift reduction. He is promotor for projects like Rethink Energy 4 Food (RE4F) and co-promotor for initiatives such as PERFECT-CA, GreenSpray, and SPECTRAI. Verboven has authored or co-authored over 493 publications, accumulating more than 15,000 citations, including recent works like 'Deep transfer learning for codling moth damage detection in 'Conference' pear using X-ray radiography' (Food Control, 2026), 'Improving energy efficiency in pear storage through dynamic controlled atmosphere (DCA)' (International Journal of Refrigeration, 2026), and 'Single-Shot X-Ray To Multi-View Projections for 3D Pork Shoulder Bone Analysis' (Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, 2025). His contributions earned the ASAE Superior Paper Award in 2001 and ASAE Honorable Mention Paper Award in 2003. Verboven's work advances sustainable food processing, energy-efficient storage, and precision agriculture technologies.