Wil Thissen: ‘Things had just started going well again’

When Wil Thissen was due to retire in 2014, he was far from finished. Four years earlier, he’d been through a rough patch. “My wife was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. That was a heavy blow, and it took me a year to recover,” he says.

After that, Thissen made what he calls “a fresh start with new projects” at the TPM Faculty. Things were in full swing when retirement came knocking. What kinds of things? “I was supervising more than 10 PhD candidates. My colleagues and I had secured major international research projects. Then came the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, which needed someone to teach a course one day a week on environmental planning and management. I did that for three years. In practice, I worked nearly full-time until the pandemic. I supervised my final PhD candidate during COVID.”

Still part of the bigger picture

“That fresh start kept me connected to the bigger picture – not least because I’m one of the founding fathers of the Faculty,” he says. Alongside Thissen, those founding figures included professors Henk Sol (also the first dean), Ernst ten Heuvelhof, and secretary-manager Simon Peerdeman.

‘Suddenly, I was 65’

Thissen remembers clearly the ideas and interests that shaped the launch of the Bachelor in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management (SEPAM) in September 1992 – the first step toward what would become TPM. “I’d been involved since 1986. I could write a book about it.”

There were internal clashes between professors. There was opposition from technical faculties, where many felt that students should focus on learning engineering first, and only later figure out how things worked in the real world. Externally, Twente University – which already had a public administration degree – wasn’t thrilled with TU Delft offering a similar programme.

In the end, it was the Zeevalking Committee that tipped the balance with a report stating that there was ‘a clear need for engineers who could transcend disciplinary boundaries to tackle major societal problems.’ “I was the systems and policy thinking guy,” Thissen says. “I spent the next 25 years developing our education and research. And then suddenly, I was 65.”

A new chapter

Four years after retirement, Thissen joined PUM Netherlands Senior Experts, through his new partner. He ran water management programmes in Rwanda and Suriname. In Senegal, he helped a Dutch onion grower analyse partners, production chains and interests. “In the end, COVID brought it all to a halt – no one could travel anymore.”

‘There’s more time now for ‘pensionado activities’

These days, Thissen still enjoys his campus pass and the guest status granted by the TPM Dean. He regularly drops by to brainstorm with new colleagues or give guest lectures to students about the Faculty’s early days. Methods and tools may have advanced, he says, but TPM still focuses on systems thinking, analysis and modelling – while also grappling with decision-making amid conflicting stakeholder interests.

But now, there’s also more time for ‘pensionado activities’ like spending time with grandchildren, playing tennis with his regular group, and enjoying a house in northern France. “So, in that sense, yes, I’m winding down.”