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Pro2Tech Management Team members
Valeria Garbin and Marcel Ottens step down |
After years of being active MT members of Pro2Tech, both Valeria Garbin and Marcel Ottens are stepping down. Because their current work requires so much attention, it is difficult to combine this with MT membership. They have been of great value to the Pro2Tech board.
We asked them how they look back on the period in the Management Team. And we sincerely thank them for their commitment over the past few years. |
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| Valeria Garbin |
How long have you been active in the Pro2Tech MT?
I have been on the MT for 3 years, starting a few months after I joined TUD in October 2019. I was appointed by the then-director Ruud van Ommen to lead the activities in the domain of Education. My first task was to create an overview of all the BSc and MSc courses relevant to process technology across the four faculties participating in Pro2Tech. In this way we can increase the connections and interactions between Departments and Faculties, between Pro2Tech researchers and educators. With the help of study association TG and Leonie de Kluijs the overview is live on the institute website.
What made you decide to step down?
I wanted to make time to focus on new research projects that I am starting this year. I am happy to hand over the Education tasks to my successor Marieke Klijn. Of course I plan to continue to participate in Pro2Tech activities.
What do you look back on with pleasure/pride/etc.?
During the Covid-19 pandemic we realized that many PhD and postdoc members of the Pro2Tech community would benefit from some training on how to make the most of online conferences. I helped organize a workshop on online networking and communication, which the participants really enjoyed. When live conferences started again, we realized that some PhDs had only ever attended online conferences. Together with Johan (Padding), I then helped organize an in-person communication workshop during the 2022 Annual Event of Pro2Tech, which was a lot of fun.
Do you have a message for colleagues at Pro2Tech?
Transforming the processes and products that we use today will be the key to a sustainable future. Pro2Tech creates many opportunities for TUD researchers from different areas to come together and develop creative solutions. I really believe that together we can make a difference. |
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| Marcel Ottens |
How long have you been active in the Pro2Tech MT?
"I was appointed MT member of the DPTI as coordinator Biochemical Process Engineering in March 2017, as successor of Professor Mark van Loosdrecht and as representative of the Biotechnology Department, at the time Professor Andrzej Stanciewicz was the director. One task was to align with the - at that time - newly formed TUD Bio Engineering Institute and coordinate the process engineering activities in the Bio-field within the two Institutes."
What made you decide to step down?
"After having served in the MT three cycles and having been active in transforming the DPTI from a "top-down" to a more "bottom-up" organization including and activating young PI's, I felt it was time to move forward and allow other, younger PI's to gain experience in cross-faculty, university wide governance experience. Over the last years I was very much involved in a large National Growth Fund program application on Cellular Agriculture, which was recently granted. Being a Board member of the Dutch Cellular Agriculture Foundation responsible for the research strand in this NGF CA program will require my time and attention."
What do you look back on with pleasure/pride/etc.?
"The conversion to a more flat, bottom-up institute with the active involvement of the younger PI's, and setting this up together with my fellow MT members has been a rewarding experience. The MT has a genuine “can-do” mentality and it was a great pleasure working with them."
Do you have a message for colleagues at Pro2Tech?
"Keep up the good work! Continue to be a "research incubator", while at the same time function as an onboarding platform form for all new young PI's at the TUD in the field of Process and Product Technology." |
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