Trained as a solid-state physicist, he discovered many of the exciting electronic properties of carbon nanotubes in the 1990s. Since 2000 he moved to single-molecule biophysics and nanobiology, with research from studies of DNA loop extrusion and supercoiling to DNA translocation through nanopores. More recently his research has focused on studying chromatin structure and cell division with bacteria on chip, while he is also attempting to ultimately build synthetic cells from the bottom up.
Dekker is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and fellow to the APS and the IOP. Dekker headed the prestigious Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft as Director from 2010-2018. He initiated an entirely new Department of Bionanoscience at Delft and leads the 51M€ NWO Zwaartekracht program NanoFront. He published over 300 papers, received an honorary doctorate, and many prizes such as the 2001 Agilent Europhysics Prize, the 2003 Spinoza award, the 2012 ISNSCE Nanoscience Prize, and the 2017 NanoSmat Prize. In 2006, Delft University appointed him as an Institute Professor. In 2014, Dekker was knighted as Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and in 2015, he received his second ERC Advanced Grant and the KNAW appointed him as a Royal Academy Professor.