Marcel Crochet is Honorary Rector of the Université Catholique de Louvain. He was born and educated in Belgium. In 1961, he received his engineering degree from the Université Catholique de Louvain and then left for Berkeley, California, where he obtained his PhD in Applied Mechanics. He began his academic career in 1966 at the Université Catholique de Louvain, where he served for 38 years, while also holding visiting professorships at the University of California, Berkeley, at the University of Delaware and at Paris VI. He was on two occasions a visiting scientist at Bell Laboratories, New-Jersey. Marcel Crochet has co-authored a book and published some 140 scientific papers in the field of rheology. His scientific work has received several awards, among which the Gold Medal of the British Society of Rheology and three honorary doctor’s degrees. On the basis of his scientific work, he created in 1988 a spin-off high-technology company which he led until 1996.

Marcel Crochet has held several administrative positions during his academic career: Delegate to the General Administrator, Department Chairman, Dean of Engineering and eventually Rector of his university from 1995 until 2004. In 2004, he received the Chief Executive Leadership Award from CASE. Since 2004, he has been an expert with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in the French Community of Belgium. He is a member of several boards related to both research and philanthropic action, including Brakeley, fundraising and management consultants. He also chairs the Agency for Technological Stimulation recently created by the Walloon Region in Belgium and IRSA, the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.