TU/e Executive Board president Jan Mengelers will be sorry to lose Emile Aarts because of his knowledge and expertise. In the view of Mengelers it will be no easy task to find the right replacement for the departing dean. But at the same time he has a sense of price. “This underlines once again what a rich source of talent our university possesses at every level. And it applies equally to its reserves of people with an outstanding track record.”

Aarts (1955, Roermond) completed his study in physics at Nijmegen cum laude, and gained his PhD in 1983 at Groningen in mathematics and physics. In that year he joined Philips Research Laboratories as researcher, where he later became head of research and management. In 1990 he was appointed by TU/e as professor of Computing Science.

Aarts has long experience in both education and research, and was appointed as dean of the Mathematics and Computer Science department at TU/e in 2012. His research covers the areas of Data Science, Social Innovation Technology and Open Innovation, and he has gained international recognition for the many books and articles that he has published. He also initiated the founding of a number of scientific institutes and collaborations.

Since 2014 he has been a member of the Royal Dutch Society of Science (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen). He was also chairman of the NWO (Royal Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) domain Physical Sciences Council, and sits on European management boards such as the European Technology Platform Artemis and the European Institute of Innovation Cluster ICTLabs.

Source: TU/e press team