Pim Groen, Professor and Chairman of Aerospace Structures and Materials, Delft University of Technology, Netherland, passed away on Wednesday 6 May 2020.
Pim Groen graduated in Chemistry from the University of Leiden in 1987 and obtained his PhD on ceramic superconductors in 1990. From 1987 to 2002 Prof. Groen worked for Philips Research in both the Netherlands and Germany, following which he became the R&D manager for Morgan Electroceramics. From 2008 to 2011 Prof. Groen worked as head of the Materials Performance group at TNO Science & Industry. From 2011 he was program manager for ‘Large Area Printing’ and ‘Printed Conductive Structures’ at the TNO Holst Centre. In 2009 Prof. Groen joined the Novel Aerospace Materials department in the field of smart materials and sensors and became Professor of the Smart Materials Chair in 2012. He combined this position with his work at the Holst Centre. Together with the people in hisresearch group, he focused on the development of smart, multifunctional materials, such aspiezoelectric composites. This technology can, among other things, increase the usability of wireless sensors that monitor the need for maintenance in hard-to-reach areas of aircraft by producing energy through vibrational energy harvesting, effectively eliminating the need for batteries.
In addition to his research activities, Prof. Groen was an active member of the Ferroelectric community and well known to many who regularly attend ISAF meeting. In 2019 he provided a tutorial session on The road towards flexible and smart electronic materials that was well received by all those that attended.
This is a memorial session for Pim, where his friends as well as former colleagues and students will give technical presentations relevant to his research fields.
- Clive Randall (Pennsylvania State University)
- Demosthenis Giannopoulos (TU Delft)
- Sybrand van der Zwaag (TU Delft)
- Ian Reaney (University of Sheffield)
- Barbara Malic (Jožef Stefan Institute)
- Hamideh Khanbareh (University of Bath)
- Anton Tuluk (TU Delft)
- Tadhg Mahon (TU Delft)