Qmineral is an independent test laboratory that offers third-party analytical services to worldwide industrial partners.

Qmineral - When you need accurate data - not just data.

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Staff

Gilles Mertens
CEO & Analysis expert
Rieko Adriaens
Head Research & Analysis expert
Wathab Mohammad
Head Laboratory
Abdullah Mohammad
Laboratory engineer
Nancy Weyns
Laboratory engineer
Nathalie Lan Dung
Management Assistent
Bram Paredis
Data Scientist
Silja Frederickx
Laboratory engineer
Ithar Shabeeb
Laboratory Assistent
Dominique Jacques
Analysis expert

Advisory Board

Pieter-Jan Vandevelde
Ilse Kenis

Meet our team

Gilles Mertens

Gilles studied Geology at UNamur and KU Leuven (Belgium). He obtained a PhD in Geology with specialty "Mineralogy" at the KU Leuven in 2009. During his research, Gilles qualified in the quantitative aspects of mineralogy. Gilles is specialized in the quantification of natural and artificial mineral mixtures by X-ray diffraction. Gilles is a co-founder of BeCOH. In this capacity, he is a member of the ISO working group silica (ISO/TC 146/SC 2/WG 7). Gilles is author of more than 30 internationally peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Gilles founded Qmineral in 2011 together with Jan Elsen.

Rieko Adriaens

Rieko studied Geology at the KU Leuven (Belgium). He obtained a PhD in Geology with specialty "Clay mineralogy" in 2015. His research focused on sample preparation and quantification of clay-bearing rocks using X-ray diffraction. Rieko is specialised in the quantification of clays and clay minerals by X-ray diffraction and the characterization of different types of grain-size analyses. Rieko is author of more than 20 internationally peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Wathab Mohammad

Wathab obtained a Master of Science Petroleum & Reservoir Engineering at the University of Baghdad (Iraq). Wathab worked as a laboratory analyst at the Geology division of the KU Leuven. He has a wide expertise in laboratory techniques and adequate sample preparation methods for clay-bearing rocks and sediments for all types of analyses. Wathab works with a high level of detail and is specialized in refining and optimizing laboratory methods.

Nancy Weyns

Nancy studied Chemistry and obtained a PhD in Chemistry at the KU Leuven (Belgium). She worked at the Laboratory of Medicinal Chemisty and as a laboratory analyst at the Geology division of the KU Leuven. Nancy is highly skilled and experienced in sample preparation of clay-bearing rocks and clay minerals for X-ray diffraction analysis. She is specialized in the analysis of Respirable Crystalline Silica (RCS). Nancy works with a high level of detail and is very precise.

Abdullah Mohammad

Abdullah studied Biology at the KU Leuven (Belgium) and graduated in 2019. He already worked at Qmineral during the summer of 2019 showing his potential. Abdullah is a fast learner and critical thinker and has already developed a wide range of skills on a short period of time.

Nathalie Lan Dung

Nathalie has recently joined our team as an experienced Management Assistent. Her main responsibilities are sample reception and invoicing. Nathalie likes to maintain a good working atmosphere and also contributes to the turnaround time management and the general workflow at Qmineral. 

Bram Paredis

Bram obtained a Master of Science in Geology at KU Leuven in 2015. Afterwards, he developed a passion for data science, machine learning, and software development during his PhD in Geology at KU Leuven. This passion led to moving to the position of Data Science Content Developer at DataCamp (Leuven) before joining Qmineral in early 2022 as a Data Scientist. He now has over six years of experience in Data Science and eight years of experience in Python programming. Bram is currently in charge at Qmineral of all things related to data science, automation, and IT management. He also loves to apply his technical know-how for the occasional repair/optimization in the lab.

Dominique Jacques

Dominique studied Geology at KU Leuven (Belgium) and obtained a Master of Science in Geology in 2012. He obtained a PhD in Geology in 2018 focusing on the (structural) geology of magmatic-hydrothermal (W-Sn-Li-Nb-Ta-Au) ore deposits. In addition, he specialized in the petrographic characterization of structure and fabric in rocks using (electron) microscopy. Dominique is the author of more than 10 internationally peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Meet our advisory board

Pieter-Jan Vandevelde

Pieter-Jan is heading the corporate development teams of Colruyt Group (i.e. the corporate finance, innovation and business development teams). Before, Pieter-Jan worked at Bekaert where he headed the M&A team. Pieter-Jan has a solid legal and financial background with strong professional expertise in strategy, (growth) governance, portfolio - project & people management, (project) financing and company restructurings. He acts as non-executive director in different companies like Dreamland, Daltix and Smartmat - Foodbag.

Ilse Kenis

Ilse Kenis is the Chief Carbon Officer of Carmeuse and General Manager of Carmeuse's engineering company TECforLime.

Before joining Carmeuse in October 2022, she worked +9 years at Sibelco, a world-leading diversified industrial minerals player where she held several senior management positions including Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer and Executive Vice-President positions in the fields of business unit leadership, commercial and marketing. Prior to Sibelco Ilse worked 5 years as a Mining expert at McKinsey & Company and several years as a Post-doctoral researcher at the KULeuven and RWTH Aachen

Ilse holds a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium)