TU Delft students famously are the busiest students

TU Delft students are an active bunch. Next to the demanding study programmes (the toughest in the country! Right?), they take up many responsibilities. Committees, boards, dream teams, jobs, (e-)sports and other hobbies. Name it, and Delft students do it. Preferably multiple things at the same time, across societies and organizations.

You can imagine that if almost all students are this involved, only the VERY active ones stand out. Only they manage to work their way up to the Student Wall of Fame.

At wall-of-fame.tudelft.nl, you’ll find students that did something special during their time at TU Delft. And with special, we do not mean ‘run a student society for a year’ or ‘organize a festival for 5.000 people’. Admirable as though those projects are, the Wall Of Fame is meant for the achievements that stand out because of their unique nature.

Meet Douglas Gilding (pictured above) for example. During a night out with friends, he got the idea to use geothermal energy to heat the buildings of our university. Thanks to Douglas’ passion and commitment, TU Delft received a permit to perform research on this topic. The permit had a twofold advantage: not only would it contribute to the development and transfer of new knowledge and expertise, but it would eventually make it possible to actually provide sustainable heating for campus buildings. Next to this project, Douglas won several other awards, including the ‘Maarten Schoot in de Gracht penning’, for extraordinary contribution to the Mijnbouwkundige Vereeniging.

Another example are Jeroen Röhner and Thijs Durieux, who founded the Student Council party ‘Lijst Bèta’. At the time, the then competitor of ORAS withdrew itself from student council elections after years of struggling for votes. Jeroen and Thijs believed two parties were essential to stimulate debate in the Student Council. On top of that, since the Student Council was the only organization with significant influence on the education, they believed that topic begged for more attention. Based on these ideas, Lijst Bèta was founded: built from the ground up by Jeroen and Thijs, all the while completing their studies in Aerospace Engineering.

Curious about the achievements of your fellow students? Read more stories at wall-of-fame.tudelft.nl.