Professor Jean Smolderen passed away on July 10th, 2014
Professor Jean SMOLDEREN passed away on July 10th, 2014. The intimate funeral only attended by his direct family members took place on 16 July. The Director of the von Karman Institute, as well as all current and past members of the personnel, who were fortunate to have known and worked with him, wish to express their deep gratitude for his contribution to the development of the Institute and its international exposure.
Professor SMOLDEREN graduated from the Université de Liège (ULG) in July 1948 with an engineering degree in radio-electricity, obtained a degree in Mathematical Sciences from the Université de Bruxelles in September 1948 and a civil engineering degree in electronics (ULG) in 1956. He began his career as First Assistant at the Université de Liège (Profs Allard and Haus) where he defended his doctoral thesis in 1956. The students of the Université de Liège enjoyed his teaching until 1990.
He also taught at the Technische Hochschule (Aachen), the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm) and the Norwegian Technical University (Trondheim).
He collaborated actively with the “Centre National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aéronautiques” (CNERA) in Rhode-St-Genèse from 1951 to 1956. Since its foundation in 1956, Jean SMOLDEREN remained at the von Karman Institute as Professor from 1956 to 1976, Technical Director from 1965 to 1970, Director from 1970 to 1976 and part-time Professor from 1976 to 1979.
The students, researchers and colleagues who knew him unanimously appreciated his scientific expertise and his willingness to give all sorts of explanations, always with great simplicity, kindness and human warmth.