| Description: | Roy Smits achievements reflect those of the rise of pulsar astronomy in the Netherlands. His steady work has been one of the driving forces ensuring that we have such a lively research field today. Roy joined ASTRON in 2009 as a postdoc in the LEAP (Large European Array for Pulsars) project and as a WSRT support scientist. For LEAP he worked on the monthly WSRT pulsar observations and he was instrumental in the development of the LEAP beamformer. For the pulsar group he maintained the PuMa II pulsar instrument. Around 2 years ago Roy switched to the Astronomy Group and has since then led the design and commissioning of the pulsar-timing back-end for WSRT. Roy has in addition contributed to ASTRON's various outreach activities such as "Girl's day at ASTRON", given countless tours of WSRT, ASTRON and the Dwingeloo Telescope, and visited high schools to promote astronomy. He has also organized game evenings and other social activities for ASTRON employees, summer students and visitors. Roy is a person with tons of ideas, always helpful, a great communicator and he brings lots of positive energy into every team he is in. He will be much missed at ASTRON and his colleagues wish him all the best for his future. |
