During many years, the Belgian National Science Foundation (NFWO, FNRS) has sponsored a contact group on “Polymer Science” the purpose of which was to promote scientific contacts between research groups active in the field of polymers at the different universities of the country.In the early nineties, in the frame of the federalization of the education in Belgium, the National Science Foundation was split into a Flemish and a French-speaking Foundation. At the same time the contact groups, which were national, were abandoned. As a consequence, there was no more structure allowing for regular contacts between the different polymer groups in Belgium.In 1994, a number of members of the former Polymer Contact Group decided to continue and even strengthen the contacts between the university groups active in polymer science and technology and to include also, as substantial fraction, industrial research groups, active in polymers, by creating a non-profit association to which the name “Belgian Polymer Group” (BPG, in analogy to the “Groupe Français des Polymères”) was given.In order to overcome possible linguistic problems, it was agreed that the working language of BPG would be English. The official announcement of the foundation of BPG and its statutes appeared in the “Le Moniteur - Het Staatsblad” of August 17, 1995, p.7229.The members of the first board were:
-Eric Goethals (UGent) president
-Robert Jerome (ULiège) vice-president
-Jacques Devaux (UCL) secretary
-Hugo Berghmans (KULeuven) treasurer
-Georges Geuskens (ULB)
-Yvan Bogaert (3M)
-Etienne Schacht (UGent)
-Günther Beyer (Kabelwerk Eupen)
-Jean Kersten (Baxter)
The first general meeting of the new society, organized by Professor Geuskens in 1994, took place in La Roche and had an attendance of 250!
Since then, BPG has organized, next to the very successful annual two days general meetings, numerous workshops and symposia, often in collaboration with other Belgian or foreign societies.
The successive presidents of BPG were:
-Eric Goethals (UGent)
-Jacques Devaux (UCL)
-Harry Reynaers (KULeuven)
-Charles Bienfait (Solvay)
-Etienne Schacht (UGent)
-Dirk Bontinck (Cytec)
-Dirk Vanderzande (UHasselt)
-Johan Loccufier (Agfa-Gevaert)
BPG is supported by a think tank, consisting of former presidents and board members. The current composition of the think tank is listed below :
Hugo Berghmans, KULeuven
Charles Bienfait, Solvay
Jacques Devaux, UCL
Walter Dewinter, Agfa
Eric Goethals, U-Gent
Robert Jèrôme, U-Liège
Roger Legras, UCL
Harry Reynaers, KULeuven
Celest Samyn, KUleuven
Etienne Schacht (coordinator), U-Gent