"We are proud and delighted that we can appoint such a strong candidate from our own organization."
The Executive Board has appointed Professor Jan van Hest as Dean of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Van Hest, who is currently scientific director of the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS), will start in his new role on 1 May.
Jan van Hest is professor of Bio-organic Chemistry at TU/e. He obtained his doctorate in 1996 at TU/e, under the supervision of professor Bert Meijer. He then worked at the University of Amherst, at DSM and at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he became a professor in 2000, at the age of 31. In 2016 he returned to TU/e, and in 2018 he became scientific director of the ICMS. In 2020, he won the Spinoza Prize, the Netherlands’ most prestigious science prize.
Koen Janssen, President of the Executive Board: "We are proud and delighted that we can appoint such a strong candidate from our own organization. Jan is not only a top scientist with an enormous track record, he has also proven that he can lead a complex scientific organization excellently. In addition, he has a large support base, in the department and beyond. We are confident that he is the right leader to move the department forward, together with the other members of the Department Board."
"I am excited and honored to be able to lead this department," says Van Hest. "I very much appreciate the collegial nature and strong interaction between students, researchers and support staff, which enables cutting-edge research, education and valorization. My mission will be to ensure that we remain a strong science-driven department, with more cooperation with other departments, where talent can develop well. We will also work on higher student numbers by making our excellent education program even more attractive."
With his new appointment, Van Hest is saying goodbye to his position as scientific director of the ICMS. The recruitment of a successor has already begun. Van Hest succeeds Maarten Merkx, who has been dean of BME since 2019. Janssen: "We are very grateful to Maarten for his great commitment and important contributions over the past six years. "