{"id":43,"date":"2026-04-04T06:18:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/?page_id=43"},"modified":"2026-04-05T06:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:39:09","slug":"about-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/about-me\/","title":{"rendered":"About me"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you want to get in touch, please read how<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Short bio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I studied Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente and obtained an MSc in 1983. My field of study was combinatorial optimization and, notably, graph theory. In 1988 I was awarded a Ph.D. in computer science from Leiden University, where I researched modeling operating systems (and actually built something close to the real thing). After my graduation, I spent approximately five years working for TNO research and switched back to academic life in 1993 (Erasmus University Rotterdam) to join VU Amsterdam in 1994 as an assistant professor. I was appointed full professor in 2002 and became head of the Computer Science department in 2010 and remained so until moving to the University of Twente in 2015. As of April 2026, I am enjoying my “permanent vacation” as an emeritus professor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ICT-Research Platform Netherlands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like so many others, my professional life has spanned more than 40 years. And like so many others, you actually do a few things in such a period. Instead of me listing highlights, it is often more informative to read what others have said. I am particularly proud of having received the first IPN Distinguished Service Award<\/a><\/strong>. The reason for receiving the award tells a lot about my professional career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trivia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I grew up with Dr. Seuss, from which everyone can learn, regardless of your age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We live in Leiden<\/a>, which is some 200 kilometers from Enschede<\/a> and about 2.5 hours when taking the train. To make matters sustainable when I started to work for the University of Twente, we bought a cottage in rural Eibergen, now situated on 2 ha (5 acres) of land with trees and meadow. Such places make life very enjoyable, also considering their locations in the beautiful regions of Twente<\/a> and the Achterhoek<\/a>. One of our goals with such a large piece of land is to increase biodiversity. We are gradually seeing improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you want to get in touch, please read how. Short bio I studied Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente and obtained an MSc in 1983. My field of Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-43","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/43\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.van-steen.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}