After a tour of Ceres by ICMS director Bert Meijer and making the acquaintance of Rector Frank Baaijens and President of the Board Jan Mengelers, all visitors donned white lab coats for a visit to the ‘cell lab’. The Rector, who visibly felt like a fish in the water in his ‘own’ laboratory, talked about the artificial heart valves that are being developed there.

The question what struck her most at TU/e is answered without any hesitation. “The emphasis on interdisciplinarity”, says the KNAW President. “This morning we visited ASML, and there, too, it was emphasized that interdisciplinary research holds great prospects for the future, so there is a very tight alignment there.” After the visit, Rector Baaijens suggests that TU/e would like to see an engineering division within the KNAW. “The engineering sciences are not represented widely enough”, he says. “Although there is an Engineering and Technology section, you see that researchers from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and architecture, building and planning are actually not represented within the KNAW today. It is obvious that we would like to see a change in that respect.”