AE students: Marc Gerritsma is this year’s Teacher of the Year

News - 06 September 2022

The study association Aerospace Engineering VSV ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ has announced that Marc Gerritsma is this year’s Teacher of the Year. The BSc and MSc students voted for him for many different reasons. “He makes sure to stay connected and has an outstanding sense of humour.”

Conveying the beauty of science and engineering to students is not a job. It’s a privilege.

Marc Gerritsma

Each year the study association VSV ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ asks all BSc and MSc students to vote for their favourite teacher at the faculty. This year’s winner is Marc Gerritsma, who teaches Physics and Aerodynamics in the bachelor, and discretization techniques in the master. In addition, he is also a thesis supervisor and PhD candidate promotor.

Alune Greeve, Commissioner Bachelor at the VSV Board: “Gerritsma was elected Teacher of the Year for several reasons, but most outstanding was definitely his humour. The students could not stop mentioning his humour. He makes sure to keep every lecture interesting and he keep their attention by filling his lectures with quick, funny jokes (for example through his funny quotes, such as “My colleague did a lot of work on this subject. But unfortunately he is dead, his name was Einstein”). By relating theories to famous scientists he also demonstrates the relevance of the subjects to society,  sometimes explaining theories which have not been completely solved like Navier-Stokes, showing the opportunities for the future of science.”


The students also indicated that Gerritsma always makes sure to stay connected to students by asking and listening to their feedback during and outside of lectures. To make sure they keep up, he regularly asks students what they are struggling with so he can focus on these subjects in the next lectures. And the students think he is “just very good at explaining the course, relating different principles of the course together in a very calm way.”

On behalf of the faculty: congratulations, Marc!