Yvonne van der Meer is full professor Sustainability of Chemicals and Materials at Maastricht University since 2019, scientific vice-director of the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials and member of the Educational Program Committee of the Master's program Biobased Materials.

Van der Meer also fulfills the position of scientific coordinator at Biobased Value Circle, a European Marie Sklodowska-Curie Industrial Doctorate program. She also leads the Sustainable Research part of the Sustainable UM2030 program and is a member of the Sustainability Advisory Group of the York Maastricht Partnership.

The common thread throughout Van der Meer's career has been sustainability and biobased materials. This started after obtaining her PhD at TU Delft when she started working as a policy advisor at NWO. From 2008, she joined Maastricht University and founded the Biobased Materials research group there, where she became head of in 2015.

After a year of vice-presidency at the KNCV, she took over the role of president from Prof. Jeroen Cornelissen on June 21, 2022. Cornelissen will remain active on the board for another two years as vice chairman.

The Royal Dutch Chemical Society (KNCV) is the professional association that represents the interests of chemistry, life sciences and process technology in the Netherlands. Its members work in industry, education and government or study at one of the universities, colleges and MBOs in the Netherlands. In addition to representing the interests of its members and organizing networking activities, the KNCV contributes to a correct image of chemistry and to reporting on this subject.