The scientists have been appointed for five years, and after that their term may be prolonged another five years. According to Rector Hans van Duijn, the bar to be considered for an academic chair is set quite high. “Not only do they excel in their area of expertise, but they’re also perfectly capable of representing our university on and off campus.” This special assignment may be facilitated in a number of ways, says Van Duijn, although it is yet unknown how exactly. Upon his installation, Bert Meijer was presented with half a million euro to increase exposure of his expertise.

Initial reactions from this directly involved are jubilant, of course. Wil van der Aalst says he’s honored. “It’s an acknowledgement for the pioneering research that’s been conducted in past years, as well as an accolade to our students, doctoral candidates, postdocs, and colleagues I’ve been lucky to work with over the course of 25 years.” He hopes his new status will enable him to further propagate his specialty Process Mining and Business Process Management. “The engineer of the future will have to deal with enormous amounts of data. It’s our challenge to use ‘event data’ for process and product improvement, and that requires a new generation of data scientists.”

Anthonie Meijer is very happy with his appointment as well. “For me, it’s an encouragement to keep working on things at TU/e I’ve already been dedicating myself to for a while: the realization of the long-term strategy 2020, the success of the Bachelor College, academic training, scientific integrity, and last but not least bridging the gap between beta sciences on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other.”

Maarten Steinbuch’s posted his reaction to Twitter: “Social media happiness is raining down on me #proud”