We're celebrating science on the first TU/e Research Day

Margot Gerritsen is a versatile mathematician with a fine nose for appealing topics, says her honorary supervisor Barry Koren, Professor of Scientific Computing in the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science. According to Koren, her academic work focusses on energy and earth sciences. “She calculates ocean currents and forest fires, as well as combustion processes in industry. In addition, she specializes in calculating fluid flows in porous media – important for the extraction of petroleum and drinking water,” says Koren. “Margot is very good at public outreach and teaching, and she’s also strong organizationally. You don’t often see mathematicians pulling in big projects, but Margot is an exception to that.”

In the field of porous media, TU/e also has a good reputation thanks to the Darcy Lab and – especially in the past – specialized mathematicians such as former Rector Hans van Duijn, with whom Gerritsen is still on the national STEM Sector Plan Committee. “This marks her out, because Margot is anything but a backroom scholar and is very involved in the Netherlands,” Koren says. As an honorary doctorate, he hopes that Gerritsen can play an ambassadorial role between TU/e and Stanford. “I think it would be great if we could exchange students with Stanford University, for example.”

Born in Zeeland, Margot Gerritsen graduated from Delft University of Technology under Professor Henk van der Vorst. She then moved out into the wider world and, following a PhD at Stanford University, worked in New Zealand for several years before returning to Stanford. She is now a Professor of Energy Resources Engineering there.

“A wonderful, inspiring researcher,” says Patricia Dankers, Professor of Biomedical Materials & Chemistry, of David Mooney. “And an amiable and pleasant colleague,” emphasizes Carlijn Bouten, Professor of Cell-Matrix Interactions in Cardiovascular Regeneration. “David is a leading scientist and, at the same time, very down to earth; truly, a role model for our field.” Dankers and Bouten are both acting as honorary supervisors for the American Mooney.

Mooney’s highly multidisciplinary work fits in well with the research of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS), says Bouten. She and Dankers know the American in part from his position as a member of the advisory board of the gravitation program Materials-Driven Regeneration, of which Bouten is the coordinator. “David knows our university well and has visited Eindhoven on several occasions, including in the form of a two-week mini-sabbatical. In guiding TU/e students who are doing external internships in his group, he has shown himself to be a highly dedicated educator and mentor. And we too are learning from him.”

Mooney is also special in that he connects fundamental research with clinical applications, Dankers highlights. “Among other things, he’s looking for materials for regenerative medicine, a field in which he has introduced immuno-engineering. David is very modest about this,” adds Bouten, “but he was the first to start making materials for this purpose.”

Both honorary supervisors hope that the honorary doctorate will contribute to more intensive collaboration between TU/e and Harvard University. “But the most important thing is that he really deserves this distinction,” says Bouten. “And by lauding him, we also want to show David as an academic exemplar to our students and PhDs.”

David Mooney studied chemical engineering in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin, before earning his PhD from MIT. Since 2004, he has worked as a professor at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also a co-founder of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at the same university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.