Reappointment of Tim van der Hagen as Rector Magnificus/President of the Executive Board

Impact for a better society
From TU Delft’s strong academic position, evidenced by its high standing in international rankings, Van der Hagen views the university’s contribution to a better society as its most important task. That starts with academic excellence and the training of ambitious engineers, which both characterise the can-do mentality typical of Delft.

Bridging divides
In order to achieve this contribution to society, Van der Hagen promotes collaboration with other knowledge institutions, businesses and alumni. In early 2020 he launched the plan for structurally expanding TU Delft’s academic cooperation with Erasmus University Rotterdam, Leiden University, Erasmus MC and the LUMC, for example in the fields of health, sustainability, urbanisation, artificial intelligence and digitisation. There are great ambitions for this initiative: the institutions aim to bridge the divides between the natural, social and behavioural sciences and medical technology. 

Innovation
In the past few years, he also undertook steps to further establish the Campus as an innovation ecosystem in which businesses can be more visible on Campus in public-private partnerships and thus involved in research at a much earlier stage. Of course, this means we need to make agreements to safeguard academic independence.
Van der Hagen also finds it important that questions of ethics with regard to innovation are on the agenda: “The fact that we can do something doesn’t necessarily mean we should do it.”

Representative
TU Delft’s Supervisory Board is pleased that Van der Hagen will be filling the combined position of Rector Magnificus and President of the Executive Board for another four years. “He is a true representative of TU Delft. A great responsibility rests on his shoulders in these exceedingly uncertain times - as the person who bears ultimate responsibility for TU Delft, as the moral face of the organisation and as President of the Executive Board,” says Jeroen van der Veer, President of the Supervisory Board.

CV
After obtaining his doctoral degree from TU Delft, Tim van der Hagen worked at the Reactor Institute Delft. In 1999 he was appointed professor of Reactor Physics and, from 2005 to 2012, he was Director of the Reactor Institute Delft. From 2010 to 2016 he was Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. In 2016 he was appointed President of the Executive Board. Since 2018 he has held the combined position of Rector Magnificus and President of the Executive Board.