Kees van der Beek holds a Diploma in Experimental Solid-State Physics and a PhD in Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He joined École polytechnique in 1997 as a researcher assigned to the Irradiated Solids Laboratory (LSI), a laboratory that he headed between 2014 and 2017. In 2019, he was assigned to the Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies in Palaiseau. He also joined the Institut de Physique du CNRS, where he was initially responsible for monitoring CNRS’ scientific strategy on the Paris Saclay perimeter, and then for monitoring CNRS’ national site policy in physics. In January 2021, he was appointed Deputy Scientific Director (ADSR) at the CNRS for the Grenoble-Alpes site. Author of nearly 180 publications in international scientific journals, Kees van der Beek was President of the Condensed Matter Physics Division of the French Physical Society from 2009 to 2013, and President of the Condensed Matter Physics Division of the European Physical Society from 2015 to 2020.