Daily Image
28-04-2014
It has pleased His Majesty...
| Submitter: | Jan Noordam |
| Description: | Our gracious King likes to see happy faces on his birthday. This time, it has pleased His Majesty to bestow the prestigious rank of "Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau" on Prof Arnold van Ardenne, in recognition of his many contributions to ASTRON, and to the "knowledge infrastructure" of the Netherlands. It is a quaint but charming Dutch custom to spring such Royal Favour on the recipient as a total surprise. In this case, this was rather succesfull. Arnold was lured to the town hall under the false pretense of some meeting. The picture captures him at the moment when, just about to lose his temper over the poor arrangements, he suddenly notices a festive clutch of family and colleagues to his right. Fortunately, he did not have a heart attack and, after a few moments of disorientation, he settled down to listen appreciatively to the well-chosen words of the Mayor of Assen. There were 5 recipients that day, covering a broad range of civic excellence. Since they were decorated in order of increasing rank, we were all very pleased when his turn came last. After a stint at Naval Research, Arnold started his career at ASTRON (then called SRZM) in 1975. As an instrument scientist he made significant contributions to VLBI, and to the JCMT telescope on Hawaii. In 1987 he decided to try his hand at industry and rapidly rose to Director of Research at Ericsson. With the advent of the worldwide SKA process, he was lured back to ASTRON in 1995 to become head of the R&D lab, heading the development of new technology for the next generation of giant radio telescopes. He quickly became a champion of phased-array technology, which now is the heart of the European concept for SKA. In addition to all this, he was very active on the wider plane of stimulating and organizing the development and application of science and technology, both locally and globally. This has culminated in his present job, for which he has been called back from retirement, to involve an entire continent (Africa) more closely in the grand adventure of radio astronomy. Such contributions to the wider community weigh heavily for the "Oranje Nassau". It is clear that such a Cornucopia of activities cannot be managed alone, especially by someone who thinks as fast as Arnold. He is the first to recognize that he has been very lucky with his wife Els, who has kept no less than four houses warm for him while he was away on his many trips. He is also indebted to Truus van den Brink, his Office Manager, with whom he has formed an effective team for many years. |
| Copyright: | Madroon Community Consultants (MCC) |
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