Jacquelien Scherpen will become the new rector magnificus at the University of Groningen. She will succeed Cisca Wijmenga on September 1. Scherpen will be the second female rector magnificus since the UG was founded in 1614.
On September 1, her first day as rector, Scherpen (1966) will be celebrating her seventeenth year at the UG. She studied at the University of Twente and went on to work at the Delft University of Technology. In 2006, she accepted a position as professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering.
She continued her career at the UG and became director of ENTEG (Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen) in 2013. Last spring, she won the Prince Friso Engineering Award and has been named ‘Engineer of the Year’.
‘Versatile university’
In a reaction, Scherpen says the UG is a ‘versatile university’. ‘I think it’s inspiring that the UG has a unique profile in the Netherlands, with highly regarded arts, exact, life, and technical science departments. This gives it a great basis for groundbreaking multi- and interdisciplinary developments in education and research that can contribute to social issues.’
Equally attentive
Johan Remkes, president of the UG’s supervisory board, says that Scherpen ‘is equally attentive to education and research and will be able to maintain the important and great relationship with the student community’.
UG board president Jouke de Vries called Scherpen a ‘great scientist’ whose work is nationally and internationally recognised as innovative and groundbreaking. ‘She’s very well acquainted with our university and she is an enthusiastic lecturer, mentor, and bridge builder with a lot of experience in academia.’