Prof.dr.ir. Iris De Graeve is head of the Department of Chemistry and Materials at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In the Research Group of Sustainable Materials Engineering, lab unit Electrochemical and Surface Engineering, she is mainly active on surface properties and engineering of metals, including additive manufactured alloys, recycled metals etc. She focusses on surface characterisation and surface treatments to create corrosion resistance and other functional  properties. She studies the mechanisms and the performance. In this field, she has both fundamental and industrial research projects. The research on additive manufacturing originates from an industrial collaboration for aerospace applications.