Prof. Ton de Kok has been appointed as director of CWI, by the board of CWI’s mother organization NWO-I, the institutes organization of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. On 1 October 2020, De Kok succeeds current director Prof. Jos Baeten, who has led the institute since 2011 and who will retire.
After finishing his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Kok joined Philips, where he explored ways to better connect logistics and production with each other, as well as with the market. Since 1991, De Kok has been a professor of Quantitative Analysis of Logistical Management Problems at Eindhoven University of Technology.
De Kok says: “As the new director of the CWI, I hope to contribute to the positioning of computer science and mathematics as scientific disciplines that are crucial to understanding the world around us and making it a little more beautiful. By describing laws in the unambiguous language of mathematics, I have learned how we can use scarce resources as efficiently as possible to continue to provide mankind with food, clothing and means of communication”.
On the ERCIM Board, Jos Baeten has been succeeded by Prof. Han La Poutré in the beginning of this year, in the position of Vice President.
