Benjamin Gorissen

Snowball & Gluon

Benjamin Gorissen

Professor of mechanical engineering, KULeuven

Benjamin Gorissen is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Leuven where he is leading the soft robotic group. He obtained his PhD at the same university and afterwards transitioned to Harvard University as a postdoc and to Facebook Reality Labs as a research lead. Currently, at KU Leuven, his research group takes inspiration from nature, developing new inflatable robotic systems out of rubbers that naturally interact with their environment. These soft robots can be used in applications where safety upon interaction is vital, like tools for minimally invasive surgery, rehabilitation robots, and haptic interfaces for virtual reality. He has published his research in leading journals like Nature and science robotics, and in more general media like Wired and SciHow.