Obituary: Piet Schellekens (1941-2023)
Piet Schellekens, emeritus professor of Precision Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) since 2004, died at the beginning of this year. Below are two excerpts from texts dedicated to his memory.
From the obituary on the TU/e website by Klaas Struik (assessor at RvA and BELAC), who was among other things head of the department of Geometrical Metrology, with professor Schellekens in the TU/e Precision Engineering department,
and Henny Spaan (founder of IBS Precision Engineering), who obtained his Ph.D. degree under the supervision of professor Schellekens.
“After his education at the Philips company school, Piet Schellekens went to work as an instrument maker at Philips Research (‘Natlab’). Soon afterwards, in 1964, he transferred to TU/e, where he became a technical assistant for
education and research in the Production Technology group, under the direction of professor Veenstra.
In 1983, following the departure of his graduation professor Koning, Schellekens became head of the Section of Geometrical Measurement Techniques under professor Van der Wolf’s Chair of Processing Technology,
enabling him to expand his field with the help of students and Ph.D. candidates. Seven years
later, he was able to set up his own chair of Precision Engineering, which grew into a worldclass
group with exceptional academic results and an excellent connection to industry.
With his enthusiastic (and typical) approach, he set an example for his students. As taught by Piet, metrology was the basis of precision engineering and this is still the case 30 years later. Driven by his passion for lasers and metrology, Piet created one of the pillars of the current success of the Eindhoven Brainport
region. A man with drive and passion who will be sorely missed.”