VLAG FLASH - March 2006, Edition 1
It is my pleasure to be able to write a few words in this first edition of the electronic VLAG news letter. Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Tiny van Boekel and I am professor in Product Design & Quality Management at Wageningen University. I am a food technologist and a graduate of Wageningen University; I obtained my PhD in 1980. Unfortunately, we did not have such things as graduate schools in those days, and when I look at the possibilities for PhD students now I can only become jealous. Fortunately, I can now contribute in another way because I have been appointed as the scientific director of VLAG as of January 1, 2006 as a successor to Prof. Frans Kok.
First of all, I would like to thank Frans for a job well-done in the past 5 years. Frans wrote in the first edition of the VLAG Flash in May 2001 about the "VLAG feeling" and I think that he has achieved that this VLAG feeling has increased indeed. I hope to be able to increase this VLAG feeling even more. The main aim that I want to achieve, in line with the past, is that we are offering our PhD students a state-of-the-art education and an environment in which they are stimulated to move scientific boundaries, learn a lot and are proud to show their VLAG certificate after graduation!
Furthermore, I want to stimulate further cooperation between the research groups that are active within VLAG. I realize that we are very lucky to have such dedicated people in the VLAG secretariat and the VLAG management team to make all these ambitions become true. Furthermore, the discussions in the location managers meetings and in the VLAG board are very stimulating as well. Last but not least we have the VLAG PhD council, and the PhD students are the ones that are central in the VLAG community. I wish all VLAG partners success in doing state-of-the-art research in food, nutrition, health and agrotechnology, and I hope that the knowledge so obtained will be transferred via our renowned advanced PhD courses to new PhD students and other interested scientists!