New Rector Magnificus of TU Delft

As of 13^th January 2018 we have welcomed a new Rector Magnificus to the TU Delft: Tim van der Hagen! Our former president, Karel Luyben, bid farewell to our university at the start of 2018 after 8 years of energetic leadership.

Tim van der Hagen, Rector Magnificus

It is the second time van der Hagen is Luybens’ successor, in 2010 he also followed Luyben up as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. Maybe this means we can already congratulate the new Dean of Applied Physics with his position as Rector Magnificus in a few years?

Our new president, who started his TU Delft career with an Applied Sciences PhD in ’89, has an extensive history with the university, which includes being Director of the Reactor Institute Delft and Chairman of the Department of Radiation. In May 2016 he was appointed President of the Executive Board and has now followed on to become the Rector Magnificus.

His predecessor, Karel Luyben was one of the people responsible for introducing the TU Delft numerus fixus, an intake restriction on the maximum amount of students per faculty. Next to that, Luyben understood the importance of connecting with the students and regularly partook in ‘Krant lezen met de rector’ (‘Reading the newspaper with the President’), in which he visited various student houses and openly discussed educational issues and problems with students. Our new President has the same mentality: ‘I look forward to taking on this challenge and improving our university where students and researchers deem necessary.’

Karel Luyben visiting students in their home