Dean

Prof. Dr. Ir. Fred van Keulen

Prof.dr.ir. A. (Fred) van Keulen is dean of the faculty of ME since 1 july 2022.

Van Keulen has been as dedicated to his students and PhD candidates as he has been to his research. In 2016 he received the Professor of Excellence Award (in Dutch: Leermeesterprijs), the highest award within TU Delft, that rewards professors who excel in both education and research, and in the interaction between the two.

Fred van Keulen studied mechanical engineering at the Faculty of ME. After graduating cum laude in 1987, he continued at ME with a PhD on geometrically nonlinear scale elements and obtained his doctorate cum laude in 1996. He then stayed on at TU Delft as an Assistant Professor and was appointed Professor of Structural Optimization and Mechanics in 1999. From 2005 to 2010, he was chair of the then newly created department of Precision and Microsytems Engineering (PME) and scientific director of the Delft Centre for Mechatronics and Microsystems.

In his research, Van Keulen focuses primarily on the development of numerical design methods, in particular the topology optimisation of structures in multidisciplinary settings. In this research, much attention is paid to production effects on the resulting product. Topology optimisation is ideally suited to additive manufacturing – the 3D printing of very complex structures.