Meijer is a prolific author, sought-after academic lecturer and recipient of multiple awards in the fields of organic and polymer chemistry.

After attending secondary school in Appingedam where he graduated in 1972, Meijer received his education in Organic Chemistry at the University of Groningen.

Via advanced molecular design and synthesis he has realized systems in which monomeric units self-assemble into long supramolecular polymeric chains, resulting in materials displaying unique dynamic properties that were thought to be exclusively reserved for macromolecules.

[5] Meijer's career took off with breakthrough results in dendrimer chemistry[6][7] including a dendritic box and super-amphiphiles (being the first examples of polymersomes).

He synthesized poly(propylene imine) dendrimers that are now produced at commercially relevant quantities (at multiple kilogram scale) worldwide.

He designed a simple quadruple hydrogen-bonded building block that is self-complementary and exhibits a very large association constant.

[13] The Meijer lab has successfully started the company SupraPolix,[14] offering a supramolecular polymer platform as a key component in several applications, including glue (as superflow elastomers), cosmetics and regenerative medicine of heart valves, for which clinical trials are underway by the Dutch/Swiss company Xeltis.

[18] Current research in the Meijer lab focuses on complex multi-component supramolecular polymer systems and their assembly behaviour[19][20] Also the potential use of supramolecular polymers is explored as mimics of biological tissue using a modular approach that allows for easy adjustment of their dynamics to external stimuli.

He was visiting professor at the universities of Leuven, Belgium (1995), Illinois (1998), Bordeaux (2007), Zhejiang (2008) and California, Santa Barbara (2008).

[46][47] In 2013 Meijer held the Solvay International Chair in Chemistry,[48] and in 2014 he won the Belgium Polymer Group Award[49] and the Prelog Medal of ETH Zürich.

In 2018, he was awarded a second ERC Advanced Research Grant[56] and the Chirality Medal of the Società Chimica Italiana (Princeton, 2018).

On September 12, 2022, the German Chemical Society GDCh presented him the Hermann Staudinger Prize 2022[60] for his 'outstanding and creative contributions to the field of supramolecular polymer chemistry'.