Eric van Steen obtained his 1st degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) with a MSc-thesis describing the characterization of ageing of stationary phases for RP-HPLC using NMR and his PhD from the Technische Universität Karlsruhe (Germany) with a thesis on the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. He came to South Africa in 1994 as a post-doctoral fellow and joined the staff in the department of Chemical Engineering at UCT as a senior lecturer in 1995. He was promoted to associate professor in 1998 and professor in 2001. His teaching focuses on engineering thermodynamics and reactor design. He was Head of Department from 2003-2007 and again since June 2015.
His research interest is focussed on heterogeneous catalysis with of course a strong focus in the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Currently, he is trying to create and characterize model systems (either experimentally or theoretically using Density Functional theory) to gain more insight in fundamental aspects of heterogeneous catalysis, such as met-support interactions and reaction kinetics.