TU/e announced the appointment Friday afternoon via a press release. The current dean of the Chemical Engineering & Chemistry department, Kitty Nijmeijer, will return to work full-time as a professor. 

Keurentjes has held a series of positions, both in academia and industry. In addition to being professor of Process and Equipment Design at TU/e, he was Scientific Officer of research organization TNO, Corporate Director of Technology at chemical company AkzoNobel and, until recently, director of the Centre for Energy Innovation at the University of Twente. Keurentjes studied and received his PhD from Wageningen University. 

Temporary appointment

The appointment is on an interim basis. When asked, a spokesperson said it is a temporary appointment because “the faculty must begin a transition to a future-proof situation.” According to the spokesman, Keurentjes has experience with this type of “complex situations.” Someone is needed “who provides stability in a period that can feel uncertain to people.” 

Rector Silvia Lenaerts praises Keurentjes' strong “empathic ability” and says she is happy to have found someone “of this caliber.” “He will give direction to the needed further development of the faculty. We are confident that this assignment is in good hands with Jos,” Lenaerts said in the press release. 

In the press release Keurentjes says: “I find it very nice to be back at the place where I have enjoyed working as a professor for ten years and which I still hold dear. I will therefore start working here with full conviction, together with everyone in the faculty and around it. I am looking forward to that.”