Recommendations
Silvia Lenaerts
Rector Magnificus TU/e
Silvia Lenaerts is the current rector magnificus of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and former professor at the University of Antwerp. She is the first female rector at a Dutch technical university. She obtained her PhD in chemistry from KU Leuven and IMEC, and worked for ten years in the industry, where she founded a company on gas sensors. She joined the University of Antwerp in 2007, where she established and led the Sustainable Energy, Air and Water Technology Group. She also served as the vice-rector of Valorization & Development, fostering collaboration between academia, government and business. She is a member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
Maarten Merkx
Dean Biomedical Engineering
Maarten Merkx studied physical organic chemistry and biochemistry at the Radboud University Nijmegen (1995, cum laude). He did his PhD with Prof. Averill (1999, University of Amsterdam) working on purple acid phosphatases, and was an HSFP post-doctoral fellow with Prof. Lippard (MIT, 1999-2001). Currently he is a professor in protein engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, a core member of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS) and dean of the department of Biomedical Engineering. He obtained young investigator grants from NOW (VIDI 2006), an ERC Consolidator grant in 2011, and an ERC Proof of Concept grant in 2014 and 2017. As the only Dutch scientist he was invited in 2015 to speak at the World Economic forum in a session on the future of synthetic biology. In 2017 he reached the media with his expertise on DNA computing, amongst others an article on wired.com. In 2019 he received an NOW Take Off grant to map the commercial possibilities of his glow-in-the-dark paper-based assays for point-of-care diagnostics. Furthermore, he was awarded multiple times as best teacher in the master’s program, and received the award for the best TU/e teacher at master level in 2012. In November 2019, he became the dean of the TU/e department of Biomedical Engineering.
Mr. Ina Adema
King's Commissioner of North-Brabant
Ina Adema is serving as the King’s Commissioner in the province of Noord-Brabant since October 2020. She studied law at the universities of Groningen and Göttingen. She worked in in the business world and was elected member of the municipal council of Deventer in 1999. She became an alderman in Deventer two years later. In 2009 Ina Adema was appointed Mayor of Veghel. In 2017 Veghel merged with Schijndel and St. Oedenrode to form the new municipality Meierijstad. In 2016, she became Mayor of the capital of the province Flevoland, Lelystad.
Joep Houterman
Chairman of the Executive Board of Fontys
Joep Houterman (1962) has been chairman of the Executive Board of Fontys since 1 March 2020. He has been a member of the Executive Board since August 2018. Within the Executive Board of Fontys, Houterman is responsible for strategy and culture & organisation. Internationalisation, audit, safety and governance also fall under his responsibility. He is also responsible for the institutes in the domains of Education and Society. He represents Fontys in the regions Eindhoven and Den Bosch and on a national level. Houterman is an experienced education administrator. Before he joined Fontys, he was vice-chairman of the board of 'green knowledge institution' Aeres. Before that, he was, among other things, director at Nuffic and manager/director at the Stoas Group. In 1987, He completed his studies in tropical animal husbandry (zootechnics) at Wageningen University.
Josien Pluim
Professor of Medical Image Analysis at Eindhoven University of Technology
Josien Pluim is full professor of Medical Imaging at the department of Biomedical Engineering, where she heads the research group Medical Image Analysis (IMAG/e). She is also a part-time professor of Medical Image Analysis at Utrecht University, affiliated with the Image Sciences Institute, an interdisciplinary research institute at the University Medical Center Utrecht. Josien Pluim is associate editor of five journals (IEEE TMI, IEEE TBME, Medical Physics, Jounal of Medical Imaging and Medial Image Analysis) and a member of the Board of the MICCAI Society. She was conference chair of SPIE Medical Imaging Image Processing 2006-2009, chair of WBIR 2006 and programme co-chair of MICCAI 2010.
Luc Brunsveld
Professor of Chemical Biology at Eindhoven University of Technology
Luc Brunsveld is full professor of Chemical Biology at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands. He specializes in studying and modulating protein-protein interactions using synthetic and supramolecular chemistry, with applications in drug discovery and synthetic biology. He obtained his PhD in supramolecular chemistry from TU/e and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow, group leader, and researcher at various institutes in Germany and the Netherlands. He has received several prestigious grants and awards, such as the ERC Advanced grant and the KNCV Gold Medal. He is also the co-founder of Ambagon Therapeutics.