Joseph Octave Indekeu - Bio and CV#
BIO and CV of Em. Prof. Dr. Hab. Joseph Octave INDEKEU (updated July 2026)
A. BIO
Joseph Indekeu is emeritus professor of physics at KU Leuven, Belgium, and a member of Academia Europaea. His areas of expertise are in statistical mechanics and theoretical condensed matter physics. His most prominent research is on phase transitions and critical phenomena at surfaces and interfaces. Many of his contributions are in the domain of “wetting” phenomena. His key achievements include:
1) real-space renormalisation group calculations using mean-field approximations, in collaboration with Attilio Stella;
2) wetting phase transitions and critical phenomena in spin models, with Peter Nightingale, and in liquid mixtures, with experimentalist Daniel Bonn;
3) re-entrant nematic and smectic phase transitions in polar liquid crystals, with Nihat Berker;
4) following the pioneering work of Ben Widom in the early 1990s, he became the leading expert on the theory of the line tension at a wetting phase transition. He unravelled the limiting value of the line tension as well as its singular behavior, at wetting, and showed how both depend crucially on the order of the wetting transition and on the range of the intermolecular forces. The “Indekeu-Robledo conjecture” is a key result in this context;
5) the prediction of an interface delocalisation (or “wetting”-like) phase transition in type-I superconductors, with Hans van Leeuwen, and its experimental confirmation at KU Leuven, with Vladimir Kozhevnikov;
6) the “Hierarchical Deposition Model” and its solution in terms of logarithmic fractals;
7) the prediction of wetting phase transitions in mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates, with Bert Van Schaeybroeck;
8) the Special-Attention Network, and the connection between interactions and topology in critical phenomena on scale-free networks, with Carlo Vanderzande;
9) the “Beyond-Linear-Use-of-Equation-Superposition” (BLUES) method for solving nonlinear differential equations, with Kristian Müller-Nedebock and Jonas Berx;
10) the exact wetting phase diagram of the “Koga-Widom-Indekeu model” for fluid three-phase equilibria near a tricritical point.
Joseph Indekeu has had a significant impact on Belgian and international society, both in his professional and wider communities, following five decades of commitment in teaching, service, leadership and outreach. Highlights include:
1) First Prize in a national contest for an essay entitled “Shadows of progress” describing the benefits and dangers of science and technology for society, in 1975;
2) Fulbright Certificate for “increasing mutual understanding between the people of Belgium and Luxemburg and the people of the United States of America through academic achievement as a Fulbright Scholar”, in 1984;
3) Laureate of the Royal Academy for Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts of Belgium in 1990 for an essay “Adsorption and wetting in Landau theory and beyond”, in which he gives a popular summary of his Habilitation thesis;
4) as President of the Belgian Physical Society (BPS) in 2002 and 2003, he helped improve the interaction between Belgian physicists and industries in Belgium. He also launched oral contests for young speakers (Masters and PhD students) at the annual BPS General Scientific Meeting, contests which are nowadays widespread;
5) as Vice-President for Educational Policy on the Executive Council of KU Leuven, in 2005-2006, he supervised the management of university-wide visitations of study programmes and helped defend university-level quality criteria for obtaining the degree of “Teacher” in Flemish secondary schools;
6) designed a “physics cabaret”, explaining the birth and development of quantum physics to broad audiences, performed with his children, from 2000 until the present day. See for example “Quantum physics 1930-1960”: https://youtu.be/rfPs01IcULU subtitled in ten languages, for which he received a Science Communication award from the Royal Flemish Academy of Science and the Arts of Belgium in 2013. Another example of his outreach is his popular lecture “The Quantum Trinity: wave, particle and spin” given in secondary schools and universities in Europe, South Africa, Japan, Vietnam, Suriname and Cabo Verde;
7) Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at KU Leuven, 2011-2015, during which time he supervised the modernisation of the department through Function and Organisation Design, and through his attention to Safety, Health and Environment;
8) Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Physica A: Statistical mechanics and its applications, since 2019. In this role he has made a positive impact on quality control of scientific publications and on publication ethics with keen attention to keeping scholarly research honest, fair and open;
9) for his ongoing teaching assignments at KU Leuven in general physics for engineering, quantum mechanics and statistical physics, he has received nine “Golden Chalk” teaching awards from his students;
10) during his first sabbatical year in 2015, he integrated his university KU Leuven into the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI), with the help of Mehran Kardar at MIT. Three years later, the presidents of both universities signed the agreement.
B. Curriculum Vitae
- Current position: Emeritus Professor of Physics, Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU Leuven
- Born in Hasselt, Belgium, 5 June 1958
- PhD in Physics, KU Leuven, February 1983
- Aggregatie Hoger Onderwijs (Habilitation degree), KU Leuven, September 1990
Career
1979-1983 Aspirant NFWO, KU Leuven
1983-1984 Post-doc, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA; Fulbright Scholar; honorary BAEF Fellow
1984-1985 Post-doc, KU Leuven
1985-1986 Post-doc FOM, TH Delft, the Netherlands
1986-1990 Qualified Researcher NFWO, KU Leuven (tenured position)
1990-1994 Research Leader NFWO, KU Leuven
1994-2001 Research Director NFWO, KU Leuven
2001-2023 Full Professor of Physics, KU Leuven
2005-2006 Vice-President for Educational Policy of KU Leuven
2005-2007 Spokesperson for Science Communication of KU Leuven
2011-2015 Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of KU Leuven
2020-2022 Chair of the Institute for Theoretical Physics of KU Leuven
2023-present Emeritus Professor of Physics with formal duties, KU Leuven
2025-2028 Extraordinary Professor, Department of Physics, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
International visits and appointments in the last ten years
2015-16 Sabbatical leave (1 year): Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA; Universiteit Stellenbosch, South Africa; Hanoi Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology, Hanoi National University of Education and Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, Vietnam; Okayama University, Japan; Anton de Kom Universiteit, Paramaribo, Suriname; Universidade de Santiago, Cabo Verde
2017 and 2019 Universiteit Stellenbosch, South Africa
2018 Harvard University and Cornell University, USA
2018 Okayama University, Japan
2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
2022 Okayama University, Japan
2022-23 Sabbatical leave (1 year): Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA; Hanoi Pedagogical University 2, Vietnam; Okayama University, Japan; Stellenbosch University, South Africa
2024 Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS), Research Fellow (July-December)
2025 Universiteit Stellenbosch, South Africa (September-October)
Main honours and awards
- Fulbright Scholar, Commission for Educational Exchange between the USA and Belgium, 1983-84
- Science Communication award, Royal Flemish Academy of Science and the Arts of Belgium, 2013
- Elected member to the Academia Europaea, 2014
http://www.ae-info.org/ae/User/Indekeu_Joseph_Octave
- Belgian Physical Society, President (2002 and 2003), Vice-president (2001 and 2004)
- Fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK
- Physica A, Editor-in-Chief 2019-present, Main Editor 2005-2019, Advisory Editor 1995-2005
- Belgian National Committee for Pure and Applied Physics (BNCPAP), Member, 2024-present
Research expertise
Statistical physics; Theoretical condensed matter physics; Phase transitions and critical phenomena; Interfaces and wetting; Liquid crystals; Superconductivity; Bose-Einstein condensation; Complex networks; Fractals; Bacterial biofilms; Colloid-polymer mixtures; Nonlinear differential equations for traveling waves and solitons
Membership of Physics Societies of Belgium, the Netherlands, France, UK and USA
Publications:
In Web of Science (Core collection): 177, h-index 35, citations 6376;
In Google Scholar: 247, h-index 40, citations 8997;
For the bibliography of the Indekeu team, see https://fys.kuleuven.be/itf/groups/joi
Teaching assignments as Emeritus professor (2025-2028)
Course H01V2B General Physics 1 (1st year Bachelor of Engineering Sciences), KU Leuven
Course Phys 152 (1st year Bachelor of Engineering Sciences), Universiteit Stellenbosch, South Africa
Promoter of 10 PhD theses and 13 Master theses
Co-promoter of doctor honoris causa of KU Leuven Prof Dr Eric Mazur (Harvard University), February 2019
Top 25 key publications representative of his career:
1. J.O. Indekeu, N.V. Thu and J. Berx, Three-component Bose-Einstein condensates and wetting without walls, Physical Review A 111, 043320 (2025).
2. J.O. Indekeu and K. Koga, “Wetting and nonwetting near a tricritical point”, Physical Review Letters 129, 224501 (2022).
3. J. Berx and J.O. Indekeu, “BLUES function method applied to partial differential equations and analytic approximants for interface growth under shear”, Physical Review Research 3, 033113 (2021)
4. X. T. Wu, D. B. Abraham and J. O. Indekeu, “Apparent first-order wetting and anomalous scaling in the two-dimensional Ising model”, Physical Review Letters 116, 046101 (2016)
5. J. O. Indekeu, C.-Y. Lin, Nguyen Van Thu, B. Van Schaeybroeck and T.H. Phat, “Static interfacial properties of Bose-Einstein-condensate mixtures”, Physical Review A 91, 033615 (2015)
6. X.-M. Xu, G. Vereecke, C. Chen, G. Pourtois, S. Armini, N. Verellen, W.-K. Tsai, D.-W. Kim, E. Lee, C.-Y. Lin, P. van Dorpe, H. Struyf, F. Holsteyns, V. Moshchalkov, J. O. Indekeu and S. de Gendt, “Capturing wetting states in nanopatterned silicon”, American Chemical Society Nano 8, 885 (2014)
7. H. Hooyberghs, B. Cleuren, A. Salazar, J. O. Indekeu and C. Van den Broeck, “Efficiency at maximum power of a chemical engine”, Journal of Chemical Physics 139, 134111 (2013)
8. K. Koga, J.O. Indekeu, and B. Widom, “Infinite-Order Transitions in Density-Functional Models of Wetting”, Physical Review Letters 104, 036101 (2010)
9. A. A. Moreira, J. S. Andrade Jr., H. J. Herrmann and J. O. Indekeu, “How to make a fragile network robust and vice versa”, Physical Review Letters 102, 018701 (2009)
10. Y. Hennequin, D. G. A. L. Aarts, J. O. Indekeu, H. N. W. Lekkerkerker en D. Bonn, “Fluctuation forces and wetting layers in colloid-polymer mixtures”, Physical Review Letters 100, 178305 (2008)
11. V. F. Kozhevnikov, M. J. Van Bael, P. K. Sahoo, K. Temst, C. Van Haesendonck, A. Vantomme and J. O. Indekeu, “Observation of wetting-like phase transitions in a surface-enhanced type-I superconductor”, New Journal of Physics 9, 75 (2007)
12. C. V. Giuraniuc, J. P. L. Hatchett, J. O. Indekeu, M. Leone, I. Pérez Castillo, B. Van Schaeybroeck and C. Vanderzande, “Trading interactions for topology in scale-free networks”, Physical Review Letters 95, 098701 (2005)
13. J.O. Indekeu and B. Van Schaeybroeck, “Extraordinary Wetting Phase Diagram for Mixtures of Bose-Einstein Condensates”, Physical Review Letters 93, 210402 (2004)
14. E. Montevecchi and J.O. Indekeu, “Increasing the critical temperature of a superconductor by curving its surface”, Europhysics Letters 51, 661 (2000)
15. J.O. Indekeu and G. Fleerackers, “Logarithmic fractals and hierarchical deposition of debris”, Physica A 261, 294 (1998)
16. K. Ragil, J. Meunier, D. Broseta, J.O. Indekeu, and D. Bonn, “Experimental observation of critical wetting”, Physical Review Letters 77, 1532 (1996)
17. J.O. Indekeu and J.M.J. van Leeuwen, “Interface delocalization transition in type-I superconductors”, Physical Review Letters 75, 1618 (1995)
18. J.O. Indekeu, “Line tension at wetting”, International Journal of Modern Physics B 8, 309-345 (1994)
19. J. Rogiers and J.O. Indekeu, “Effect of gravity and confinement on phase equilibria”, Europhysics Letters 24, 21 (1993)
20. J.O. Indekeu, “Line tension near the wetting transition: results from an interface displacement model”, Physica A 183, 439 (1992)
21. M. Kardar and J.O. Indekeu, “Adsorption, and wetting transitions on rough substrates”, Europhysics Letters 12, 161 (1990)
22. J.H. Sikkenk, J.O. Indekeu, J.M.J. van Leeuwen, and E.O. Vossnack, “Molecular dynamics simulation of wetting and drying at solid-fluid interfaces”, Physical Review Letters 59, 98 (1987)
23. J.O. Indekeu and A.N. Berker, “Quadruple reentrance (NAdNAdNA1) from the frustrated spin-gas model of liquid crystals”, Physical Review A 33, 1158 (1986)
24. M.P. Nightingale and J.O. Indekeu, “Effect of criticality on wetting layers”, Physical Review Letters 54, 1824 (1985)
25. J.O. Indekeu, A. Maritan and A.L. Stella, “Renormalization group recursions by mean-field approximations”, Journal of Physics A 15, L291 (1982)
Most cited publication:
D. Bonn, J. Eggers, J.O. Indekeu, J. Meunier, and E. Rolley, “Wetting and spreading”, Reviews of Modern Physics 81, 739 (2009); #citations = 2559 (WoS), journal impact factor = 50.49
Main invited talks or roles at international meetings in the last 10 years
- 254th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Washington DC, August 2017
- International Symposium in honor of Mehran Kardar, MIT, Cambridge MA, June 2018
- Chair, Scientific Advisory Board of the Summer Schools FPSP XV (2021) and XVI (2025), Italy
- Kumquat Theoretical Physics, Quantum Computing and Complex Systems International Conference 2021, Wroclaw, Poland (online), September 2021
- International Symposium in honor of Nihat Berker (online), September 2021
- Seminar on Bose-Einstein condensation at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, November 2021
- Lecturer at the 7th Warsaw School of Statistical Physics, Sandomierz, Poland, July 2022
- Seminar on Wetting at Lab. Matière et Systèmes Complexes, CNRS & Univ. Paris Cité, June 2023
- Seminar and Mini-School on “Wetting and phase transitions and critical phenomena at surfaces and interfaces” at NITheCS, Stellenbosch, South Africa, July and August 2023
- International Mini-Symposium on Liquids, Okayama, May 2024
- Fellows’ seminar at STIAS on “Wetting phenomena in nature and artefact: a physicist’s perspective”, Stellenbosch, South Africa, September 2024
- Seminars on Wetting at Imperial College London, UK, Jan 2025 and HH Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, UK, Feb 2026
- Oral presentation on Wetting at the StatPhys29 Conference, Firenze, Italy, July 2025
- 3rd Vietnam Symposium on Scientific Computation and Modeling (VSSCM2026), July 2026 (online talk “From quantum physics to quantum mechanics: a special delivery!”)
Main research projects with funding (promoter or co-promoter) in the last ten years
- Bilateral exchange and collaboration grant (NAFOSTED and FWO-Flanders) between Vietnam (Hanoi) and Belgium (Leuven), 2014-2017
- Bilateral exchange and collaboration grant between Massachusetts Institute of Technology and KU Leuven: “Iteratively solving nonlinear growth, diffusion and convection”, MISTI Global Seed Funds (MIT-KU Leuven Fund) 2020-2024
Outreach: Quantum physics cabaret. See https://youtu.be/rfPs01IcULU
Full list of publications
