Wim Koppers new Director TU Delft Reactor Institute

TU Delft’s Executive Board has appointed Wim Koppers as Director of the TU Delft Reactor Institute with effect from 1 September 2023.
 
Wim has extensive experience in the worlds of industry, university and research funding. He is currently the managing director of Eindhoven University of Technology’s faculty of Biomedical Engineering. Before this, he worked as director of operations and finance at the Dutch Research Council (NWO) whose main task is to fund scientific research in the Netherlands. Prior to this, he spent more than 9 years as the managing director of the Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER) during which time he was responsible for both the operational management and the technical departments of the institute. Wim led the relocation of the DIFFER institute from Nieuwegein to the TU/e campus which is home to the institute’s new building. Wim holds a PhD in Experimental Physics (of Surface Science) and started his career at Philips Research where he was the project leader for all DVD activities. Wim holds over 15 patents on this topic and is the co-inventor of the Dual Layer DVD+R disc.
 
The Executive Board is delighted with this latest appointment. Paulien Herder, dean of the Applied Sciences faculty, the parent faculty of the TU Delft Reactor Institute, looks forward to working with Wim: “In Wim, we have found an experienced colleague who knows how to manage various disciplines at the desired level of abstraction, who has extensive experience in managing large-scale infrastructure, and who also knows how to make the link from domain knowledge to scientific departments.
 
Wim is very enthusiastic about working at the TU Delft Reactor Institute (RID). “The work at the RID is enormously important and will become even more relevant after the completion of the Oyster programme. I really like working with the enthusiastic RID team and putting the institute firmly on the map both internally and externally.” Wim is impressed by the quality of Delft University of Technology and is happy to become part of it. “I’m looking forward to being closely involved with the technological innovations of the Applied Sciences faculty in my new role.”
 
Wim Koppers will replace Professor Theun Baller, who had been the institute’s interim director since January 2023. Paulien Herder is extremely grateful to Theun Baller for his dedication to the position and would like to offer him her heartfelt thanks.