Preface
When interesting people retire or celebrate an important milestone, it is a good habit to construct a ‘liber amicorum’ in which colleagues, business relations, science-relations and plain friends picture the person in question with his or her positive and negative sides.
Our friend René Wagenaar did not get the chance to reach a jubilee or his super-annuation; an awful disease pulled him away. So now his friends and relations build a modest monument for him. The man René as he was in other people's eyes: a contradiction in itself.
From a distance modest, almost shy, always seemingly lightly confused, slightly disorganised, not a good timekeeper. Certainly not pushing himself to the foreground, keeping his knowledge to himself even when he knew better than what was laid out. As a colleague at KPN Research he was one of the least outspoken professors there, but always participating, always contributing and listening very well.
But when you came closer to him, got to know him better, he was lively; he could be harsh and direct in his approach, someone who lived life intensely, a strong family man who, besides that, took a great interest in other people. And more important for our TU Delft: a man with the basic curiosity to drive research forward, to motivate colleagues and students and make the space available in which they could excel, like a father.
I hope and trust that this book will show its readers that the progress of science – albeit that we remember the icons better – has much more to thank to relatively ordinary people like René, provided they have the motivation and drive he had.
Wim Dik
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