SPECIAL MOMENTS
Professor Dr. Kees Aarts named as Scientific Director of IGS
As of January 1, 2010 Professor Kees Aarts has been named as the Scientific Director of the The Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies (IGS). The appointment is for a term of five years. The IGS is one of six research institutes at the UT. This internationally orientated institute conducts research in the area of control and management of technological and social innovation. The research is focused on both the public and private sector. Kees Aarts, Professor of Political Science specialises in elections, voter behaviour, and democracy in the Netherlands, and beyond. In his role as Scientific Director he will continue work on internationalising and raising the profile of IGS. IGS's research, with its strong foundation in the social sciences is organised into a few larger clusters, as follows: management of science; technology and education; innovation and entrepreneurship; innovation of public administration and water; sustainable energy; and, the issues public space policy. Each cluster links social science with technical research.
Professor Dr. Erik Arnold appointed as Professor of International Innovation Policy
Professor Erik Arnold was appointed as Professor of International Innovation Policy as of October 1, 2010. His research and educational activities are focused on the analysis of innovation policy. Innovation policy includes a broad range of approaches, instruments, and goals that support scientific research and technological applications, as well higher education and the stimulation of innovations in industry and society. Erik Arnold's research is conducted under the auspices of the Governance of Innovation, Technology, Higher Education and Research (GITHER)" programme at the Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies (IGS). Professor Arnold is the Director of Technopolis, in Britain, and Chair of the Technopolis Group (with offices in nine European cities). Erik Arnold was previously at the Science Policy (SPRU) department of the University of Sussex, the European Commission and, as management consultant, at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Professor Erik Arnold will give is oration on October, 27, 2011.
Prof. dr. Kuldeep Kumar is appointed as professor of Global Business Process Sourcing
Prof. Kumar has extensive international experience and currently holds appointments at Hong Kong City University and Florida International University. He earlier held positions at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Georgia State University Atlanta. Prof. Kumar will focus on the intersection of business process management, global sourcing, and Information Systems & Change Management. Application areas include supply chains, manufacturing, and logistics, banking and finance, IT and IT-enabled services, software product development, and sourcing issues in R&D and innovation management. The chair will be embedded in the department of Information Systems & Change Management. Prof. Kumar will seek collaboration with IT and services industries that are active in BPM and global sourcing. Research projects will have an international scope, both in studying global projects and in attracting international MSc and PhD students to work with the chair.
Inaugural lectures
Inaugural lecture of Professor Dr. Hans de Groot
Hans de Groot, Professor of Public Management, gave his inaugural lecture "Evidence-based Public Management" on Thursday June 3, 2010. His professorship is directed towards the relationship between public sector performance, particularly public sector efficiency and cost-effectiveness, and the use of new management instruments such as outsourcing, benchmarking and decentralization. However, empirical evidence on the performance of many public sector programmes and management instruments is often lacking, and therefore further research is urgently needed. Given the large organisational variety of local government in the Netherlands, he is especially interested in the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the more than 400 Dutch municipalities. Professor De Groot mainly teaches bachelors and masters students of the Public Administration programme, including the part-time executive programme Master Public Management. His research is part of the strategic programme Innovation of Governance at the Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies (IGS), the research centre of the School of Management and Governance. Click here for a copy of the lecture.
Inaugural lecture of Professor Dr. Rezaul Kabir
Professor Rezaul Kabir, Chair of Corporate Finance and Risk Management, gave his inaugural lecture entitled "The Technology of Corporate Finance" on October 14, 2010. In his oration Prof. Kabir emphasised the true meaning of technology as the practical application of scientific knowledge, and outlined the richness of the subject of 'corporate finance' in applying systematic knowledge from many disciplines. He also discussed some of his past and current research, which uses a multi-theoretical perspective for investigating issues related to corporate financing, corporate restructuring and corporate governance. You can read the inaugural lecture of Prof. Kabir here .
Inaugural lecture of Professor Dr. Jon Lovett
Jon Lovett, Professor of Sustainable Development in a North-South Perspective, gave his inaugural lecture, entitled "Institutions for Ecological Engineering", on November 4th, 2010. With the professorship, Lovett takes over the long-established Technology and Sustainable Development Group, which is now fully integrated with the Centre for Studies in and Sustainable Development (CSTM). The group is particularly focused on climate change, energy and technology transfer and provides courses to a wide range of developing countries, as well as hosting many PhD students. Current work includes two major projects funded by the Dutch Research Council: one on conflict resolution in Lebanon and another, situated in Mexico, on payments for ecosystem services. The group is also active under Route 14 with a project on biofuels that brings technical and social sciences together. Click here for the text of the lecture.
Inaugural lecture of Professor Dr. Ariana Need
Ariana Need, Professor in the Sociology of Public Governance, gave her inaugural lecture "Choices in context: On markets and the functioning of supply and demand" on Thursday, May 20th, 2010. Since the Eighties, there have been profound changes in the provision of public services across Europe. Governments have increasingly moved towards privatisation and the liberalisation of restrictions that bar entry to particular markets. Citizens now have been given the ability to chose, and the idea behind liberalisation is that they will choose the most favourable offer. To understand the choices that citizens make, researchers quite often use an economic theory that refers to the costs and gains that are connected to these choices. A theory that assumes a rationally-acting individual is very useful in explaining social phenomena, but Professor Need's view is that it is important to take into account the social context in which choices are made. Click here for the text of the inaugural lecture.
Inaugural lecture of Professor Dr. Lissa Roberts
Lissa Roberts, Professor of Long Term Development of Science and Technology, gave her inaugural lecture "Technology out of Context" on Thursday 25 March, 2010. Roberts' professorship is directed toward historicizing Twente University's central theme "high technology, human touch" by investigating science and technology as inter-active elements of the socio-cultural settings in which they have taken place. Attending to this historical perspective is crucial for understanding how science and technology have actually developed in practice, rather than in theory, and provides a constant reminder that the boundaries between scientific and technological work, on one hand, and society, on the other, are always porous. Recognizing the socio-cultural character of science and technology as they have developed over time and across space, and the increasingly techno-scientific character of society provide the key to effective governance and responsible innovation. Click here for the text of the lecture.
Inaugural Lecture of Professor Dr. Petra C. de Weerd-Nederhof
On the occasion of her appointment as full professor and Chair of Organization Studies and Innovation, professor Dr. Petra de Weerd-Nederhof gave her inaugural lecture on the topic of organising innovation. In her inaugural lecture, she illustrated the specific approach to studying innovation processes in organisations at Twente: a holistic process-based approach, rooted in contingency and configuration thinking. Firstly, this approach implies that there is no 'one best way' of organising innovation, and that the commonly-practised 'best practices' research should be nuanced in its application in industry. Rather, organising innovation should be seen as orchestrating an innovation journey, in which a balance is found between operational effectiveness (short-term innovation success) and strategic flexibility (longer-term foresight for future renewal and breakthroughs). Last but not least, truly innovative organisations are characterised by not only sustained innovation performance, they also employ new and innovative organisational forms for their innovation processes. In the lecture, Professor de Weerd-Nederhof illustrated this view with the detailed example of the organisational evolution at Ericsson Enschede, over a period of 13 years. Click here for the text of the lecture.
Other special moments
The Departure of Professor Boorsma
On December 2nd Professor Boorsma gave his valedictory lecture. In his speech, entitled " Economists' ideas passing by..." Dr. Boorsma touched on many of the subjects that he has engaged with over his past 33 years' work as Professor of Public Finance at the University of Twente. Professor Boorsma's lecture addressed subjects that included criticism of the restructuring policy promoted by the present Cabinet. Over the 33 years that Boorsma has been at the UT, he has worked on a broad array of subjects varying from budget policy, scaling-up, fusions of all kinds of (semi) public organisations, privatisation and financial management to 'long wave' theory and risk management.The School of Management and Governance is indebted in many ways to Peter Boorsma. Institutionally, he has been Dean of the School (formerly of Public Administration) in several periods and acted as co-founder of its CHEPS institute and founder of IPIT. Scientifically, he has delivered over 25 PhDs and a considerable number of prestigious publications, for which he has been awarded the APSA (American Society of Public Administration) Award in 2005. For a digital version of Professor Boorsma's valedictory lecture, click here .
Valedictory Lecture of Professor Thomassen
On the afternoon of Friday, September the 24th, Professor Jacques Thomassen was given emeritus status after thirty-three years of service to the University of Twente. In his valedictory address, Jacques Thomassen spoke of "Democracy's Permanent Crisis." Other speakers included Professors Jan van Deth (Mannheim) and Pippa Norris (Harvard). Thomassen was presented with the 'Medal of Honour' of the University of Twente.
Since 1977 Jacques Thomassen has been Professor, and since 2005 Distinguished Professor, of Political Science at the University of Twente. His research group occupies a unique place in political science and public administration and is exceptionally productive, according to both internal and external reviews. Thomassen's impact in the area of comparative empirical political science is recognised not only within the Netherlands: he is also the driving force behind a number of large international, comparative studies. In May of 2008 Professor Thomassen was appointed General Secretary of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. For a digital version of Professor Thomassen's valedictory lecture, click here .