Opening Academic Year 2024/25
On Monday 2 September, we will celebrate the opening of the academic year 2024/25 at Theater aan het Vrijthof.
It promises to be a memorable afternoon, with an opening speech by UM President, prof. dr. Rianne Letschert, an inspiring keynote lecture by Han Dols and an interesting presentation by Associate Professor Gideon Koekoek. We will also award the Edmond Hustinx Award and the UM Student Award. To top it off, the celebration will be accompanied by music.
You can sign up using the link in your personal invitation, which was sent out via email.
On 2 September, you can also follow the live stream of the academic year opening ceremony on this webpage, starting at 15.15.
This year's theme: ‘Limburg’s window on the universe – global innovation and regional regeneration’
The Meuse-Rhine Euroregion is leading the race to build the Einstein Telescope. Thanks to the scientific expertise of Maastricht University and its Euroregional partners, as well as the knowledge economy growing around them, the Euroregion could soon become the centre of European research on gravitational waves. How does our region’s tradition of learning and cross-border cooperation contribute to future prosperity?
Interesting keynote and presentation
This year, we are honoured to welcome Han Dols as our keynote speaker. Han Dols is Section Leader Business Development & Entrepreneurship at CERN Knowledge Transfer Group.
CERN, the European organisation for nuclear research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Famous for the discovery of the Higgs boson particle and the development of the Large Hadron Collider, the organisation plays a leading role in the research on the fundamental composition of the universe.
During his lecture, Han Dols will share valuable knowledge of and new insights into this year’s theme. This is a unique opportunity to learn from his expertise and experience.
In addition, Associate Professor Gideon Koekoek (Faculty of Science and Engineering) and one of his students will give an interesting presentation about gravitational waves and the Einstein Telescope. Their presentation will look into the latest developments in this fascinating research field.
Han Dols is Section Leader of the Business Development & Entrepreneurship Section at the CERN Knowledge Transfer Group. He studied physics at TU Delft and is an alumnus of IMD (Geneva), Webster University (Leiden), the Haas School of Management, University of California (USA) and the Frankfurt School of Management and Finance (Germany). Starting his career in 1994, he worked at prominent companies, such as Medtronic, DSM, and now CERN. He is also co-founder of HumanXR.