Gyro Gearloose meets Albert Einstein

In the run-up to the election, eight of these colleagues have been given the opportunity to unashamedly extol the virtues of their candidates and convince people to vote for them.

It is a grey autumn day in November. Outwardly the YesDelft building betrays none of industriousness inside. The business lounge at the heart of the building, the place where social gatherings are usually held and which offers a fine view of the breeding ground for young entrepreneurs, will today serve as a recording studio for a few hours. The cameraman, director and interviewer hired by YesDelft to make the promos for the Delft Entrepreneurial Scientist Awards have scheduled an hour for each colleague in which they can praise their nominee.

That’s not at easy as it sounds when you have a camera focused on you: just try explaining in a few well-rounded sentences (and in English) why someone deserves to win the prize for the best entrepreneurial scientist (twenty thousand euros) or best entrepreneurial motivator (ten thousand euros). There are four nominees for each of these categories. You have until 10 December to place your vote at www.yesdelft.nl/vote. The winners will be announced on 11 December.



American entrepreneurship

Morteza Alavi is having some trouble making his point in a flowing sentence. Endlessly, or so it seems, he has to repeat why ‘his’ candidate, Dr Bogdan Staszweski, should win the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award. Alavi, who is sitting on a stool in stocking feet because of the sensitive sound-recording equipment, remains calm.

When the recordings are ready he stands up with a visible air of relief and a little apologetically. Now that he is allowed to speak casually again, his story comes more easily. “Bogdan wants to use his scientific knowledge to address social needs. He loves a challenge and then he invents fantastic products,” he says, searching around for his shoes. “The first mobile phones were very large and heavy. Bogdan was one of the first who wanted to change that. He made much smaller and better chips. A third of all mobile phones still work with these. Bogdan is famous; he brings a whole network with him, which makes it easier to attract research assignments.”

Alavi describes his PhD supervisor and partner in the chip company, Ditiq, as easy to get along with. “I can always rely on him. We are close and I feel at ease with him.” According to Alavi, Staszewski knows how to get the most out of simple ideas.

Staszewski, Polish by birth and a US national, worked in industry until 2009. He has 105 patents to his name. “He brought that spirit of American entrepreneurship to our research group. It’s motivating to know that your ideas are worth being protected.”



Cut the crap and to the point

Alavi was not the first person to face the camera on this recording day. Various people went before him, such as Michel Boerrigter, who was allowed to extol the virtues of Prof. Sicco Santema for the Motivator Award. Later that day, he is making his way through the hall of YesDelft carrying a tray full of lunch items. Despite being in a hurry, he takes a minute to describe Santema. “I have been working with Sicco for two years now,” he says while putting aside his tray. Boerrigter works for the Calendar42 company, which ‘develops dynamic scheduling technology for a calendar that thinks along with you.’

“Sicco is good at connecting the academic sphere to practice. He can translate ideas quickly into what needs to be done and who you need to speak to. That is how you create impact. His knowledge and expertise are very important for us. He’s a good sparring partner and knows what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.”

According to Boerrigter, this means that Santema knows when there needs to be peace and quiet to focus on business matters. “He has a lot to offer in terms of knowledge of the field. With him, it is cut the crap and to the point. He keeps us, and others, on the right path and opens doors for us. But he doesn’t push us in his direction.” Boerrigter picks up his tray and hurries away.



Example for PhD candidates

A little further along the hall is the office of Medishield, the company of Tim Horeman, who is the only PhD candidate among the nominees. His partner and general manager, Willem Nerkens, sharply suited, jumps up from his chair when he is asked to extol Horeman’s virtues for a second time that day. “Tim is the youngest nominee. He not only developed Medishield’s training systems for surgeons, but also a moisture detection system for nappies for a company called Salusion,” he explains. In the words of Nerkens Horeman argues for ‘the objective measurement of surgical skills for keyhole operations in the abdomen’.

Medishield supplies training kits that surgeons can use to practise. “Control is not the only important aspect here. Surgeons also get a feel for the degree of force they have to exert.” In addition, Horeman is busy developing isolator systems for Medishield, which serve as gateways to the abdominal cavity. These prevent gases from leaking from the abdominal cavity during an operation.

According to Nerkens, his partner should win the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award because he ‘attempts to link his scientific research directly to market demand’. “Furthermore, he’s working part-time on his PhD. He has a passion for searching for technical solutions for practical problems. I think he’s an example for other PhD candidates, because he shows that working on a PhD and running a business can go together.”



Versatile and inspirational

Back to the business lounge, where the camera is focused on Roel Meeuws, who is talking about Prof. Koen Bertels. Meeuws’s initial nerves prove unfounded once he gets talking. “Koen supervised my Master’s thesis and my PhD research. He is my mentor as well as my boss at Bluebee Technologies.” Bluebee makes hardware platforms for Big Data.

“Why does he deserve to win the Motivator Award? He’s an entrepreneur on multiple levels. He always asks the question of how we can use an idea in practice. He’s the driving force behind our company, but he has a number of companies. Where other professors only think about running a business, Koen actually does it. He can give a good explanation of what an entrepreneur is.” Bertels has been teaching the subject “high-tech start-ups” for years now.

Meeuws has to think deeply when the YesDelft interviewer asks him what Bertels’s vision is. She waits patiently while Meeuws mentally composes his answer. “Koen wants to help society move forward and motivates others to start and run businesses in a natural way. He’s very versatile and that is inspiring. He has connections with a number of European companies and has started various projects in Africa.”

After the interview, Meeuws explains that with Bluebee Bertels has set up a business that gives young scientists the chance to work out their ideas. “What’s more, he doesn’t give you the feeling that he’s your superior. He builds on your independence. He’s flexible: you can always get in touch with him and he’s not afraid of change.”



Jester of 3mE

The final interview of the day in the business lounge of YesDelft is the smoothest one. Richard Holleman strolls in with the steering wheel of a car in his bag. “I thought perhaps this might come in handy,” he says with a smile. A little later it does in fact appear to work. The take has to be repeated a few times, but Holleman nevertheless proves himself an accomplished presenter when he praises his nominee for the Motivator Award, Dr Wim Thijs, with the steering wheel in hand.

Holleman calls Thijs the ‘jester of 3mE’ (the faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering – ed.), ‘everyone knows him’. “He starts where other people stop. If it’s difficult to achieve something, he says that almost nothing is impossible. He can get things done.”

Holleman can illustrate the latter with the story of his own company, Carice, which develops lightweight cars. “I had an idea for new sports car, but I was turned down everywhere. Wim was enthusiastic straight away. It’s very important to find someone who believes in you when you want to start a business. Wim arranged a place for me in the DreamHall – of which he’s one of the founders – and brought me into contact with the right people so that I could focus my thesis project on the chassis of that car. Wim teaches many students how they can really achieve something and realise their dreams.”



Finger on the problem

Intespring, a design and consultancy agency in the field of motion technology and spring mechanisms is situated on the top floor of YesDelft. One of the founders, Rogier Barents, was one of the first to appear before the YesDelft camera earlier that day. He is in a meeting when we call, but the following day on the telephone he sketches a good image of ‘his’ nominee for the Motivator Award, Dr Just Herder.

“That title fits him perfectly,” Barents begins. “When a group of students come up with an idea and a lecturer who is a leader in his field tells them that it is good, it’s what they need to hear in order to continue. That’s what happened with me and my partners and it has happened with other students who have established companies. Just recognises the true gems when he sees them.”

Herder has never told the young entrepreneurs how they should run their company, says Barents. “He leaves that to us. But with each new step we take, he ensures that there’s a win-win situation for both Intespring and TU Delft. He’s used his network extensively to help us.”

Barents believes Herder is ‘open, sincere, accessible, highly driven, an expert, critical and capable of laying his finger on the problem’. “During the six years we’ve be running, we’ve been in contact with him every week, for feedback on technical challenges. Those back and forth discussions with him often paved the away for later ideas.”



Beyond the academic journal

Mark van Loosdrecht is sitting in his car when he picks up his phone to answer some questions about his colleague Prof. Geert-Jan Witkamp, who has been nominated by yet another colleague for the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award. Van Loosdrecht explains that Witkamp not only conducts ‘excellent science’, but also keeps a constant eye out for possible applications.

“He’s introduced a new technology that makes chemical processes more efficient, also reducing their negative impact on the environment. Consider the dying of clothing. It was his idea to do this not by using water-based methods but by using CO2 instead. Geert-Jan is creative and broadly-oriented.”

As a person, his colleague says, Witkamp is an “extremely friendly and intelligent person with broad interests. He’s involved in various companies, but continues to do the research himself.”

According to his official nomination, Witkamp has twenty patents to his name. The broad interest that Van Loosdrecht describes can be seen in the companies that have stemmed from his research.

One spin-off is involved in marketing the Eutectic Freeze technology discovered by Witkamp, an energy conservation treatment that works by freezing industrial waste solutions. Another company focuses on the cooling down of athletes after a competition, and yet another on dying textiles with the use of CO2. According to Van Loosdrecht, Witkamp is highly driven. “And not just to write good articles. No, he goes beyond the academic journal.”



Both feet in the mud

‘The best possible cross between Gyro Gearloose and Albert Einstein.’ What more does Rolf Hut need to say about Prof. Nick van de Giesen, nominated for the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award?

Over the phone, he sums up what Van de Giesen is working on: “Nick is active across the whole breadth of science and encourages others to do the same. He is involved at the regional level, in the digital Delta, a platform that allows the entire water-management chain to make use of the same information. He was a representative of the Water Theme in the framework of the top-sector policy. At the European level, he actively pursues the improvement of the water systems in towns and cities together with other universities and companies, and he is co-author of the IPCC report on climate change. But on a Friday afternoon you can also find him soldering a sensor together. Both feet firmly planted in the mud, that’s how Nick is.”

Hut works together with Van de Giesen in the start-up company Disdrometrics, which is developing a new type of rain meter. “This meter works on the basis of the sound that rain makes when it falls. It costs only a fraction of the price of current rain meters. The basic concept was Nick’s and initially it was only meant for Africa. The rain meters were to be part of weather stations for the African market, which could be integrated in the schooling system. We received so many positive reactions in the course of the project that we’re now also developing it for the European market.”

Hut believes that in order to win the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award, you need to have more than just a company start-up. “Nick is active across the board: nationally, in Europe and on the global market.”



Voting is open until 10 December, at www.yesdelft.nl/vote. The winners will be announced on 11 December.