Voets was trained in Molecular Sciences and Physical Chemistry (PhD, 2008) at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She received all degrees with the highest distinction. After a postdoctoral appointment at the Adolphe Merkle Institute in Switzerland, Voets joined the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2011 to start her independent research group. She was appointed full professor of the Laboratory of Self-organizing Soft Matter in 2018.
Voets studies self-assembly processes in man-made, biological, and biohybrid soft matter to gain fundamental insights for translation into rational design strategies to engineer novel functional soft materials. She seeks to understand the simple design rules that orchestrate how complex functionalities emerge from hierarchical self-organisation processes aiming ultimately to manufacture and apply innovative lifelike materials in a more environmentally benign, faster, more (energy) efficient, and cheaper fashion. Voets was the first to demonstrate the temporally programmed dissociation of complex coacervate core micelles and the folding of single chain polymeric nanoparticles into elongated, multidomain architectures instead of compact globules.
Voets pioneering work in soft matter nanoscopy resulted in major breakthroughs including the new tool iPAINT, the first visualization of supramolecular block copolymers and the first simultaneous and in-situ visualization of individual nanoparticles and the liquid-liquid interface to which these are adsorbed. Other key developments spearheaded by Voets are the precision engineering of light- and temperature responsive supramolecular colloids and the development of bio-inspired antifreezes that outperform their native analogues for improved anti/de-icing technologies, construction, and cryopreservation.
