Thomas Hoppe has been appointed full professor of Sustainability of Rural-Urban Systems. In this new position, he will work on aligning sectoral sustainability ambitions in geographical territorial, landscape, governance and societal perspectives. Thomas has a rich history at the University of Twente. He studied there, received his PhD, was UD there for five years and met his wife there. He then spent eight years as a UHD in Delft. In mid-April, he will return to UT and start working at CSTM as a full professor.
He will take the experience he gained in Delft with him for his role at UT. Hoppe: "In Delft, a different environment, different organisation and different working methods, I learned a lot. With more experience and full of ambitions, I may return to Twente. I'm looking forward to it". Another project is also coming with me from Delft to Twente that fits into the lens of the chair. "It is an EU-funded project - WaterWarmth. This involves aquathermal technology that extracts heat from water that can be used to heat buildings and even residential areas. This is a transdisciplinary project focusing on whether it is possible to develop and scale up collective heat systems using this technology. Universities, municipalities, provinces, technology suppliers, and residents from six countries are involved," Hoppe explained.
Chair
Within the chair, the main focus is on sustainability challenges on a regional scale - between urban and rural areas - with attention also being paid to social, technical, institutional, and environmental factors. The big administrative question is which knobs to turn to bring about sustainable system change. This is precisely where the combination of people and technology is needed.
Hoppe is very enthusiastic about his new role: "I am looking forward to working with my new colleagues in the Section and Department to make research even more vibrant (as I experienced in Delft). We will work together, also to further develop existing lines of research, doing beautiful and pioneering research, resulting in high-impact publications, with fun knowledge events such as conferences. Furthermore, I look forward to collaborating with colleagues within CSTM, TPS, and the BMS faculty, as well as other faculties at UT."
Transdisciplinary collaboration
The University of Twente has a good combination between people and technology, the "Shaping 2030" vision, technology in its social context, represents a task. Hoppe, himself a public administration expert, therefore likes to seek collaboration with engineers: "For example, exploring and optimising complex socio-technical systems, working with modellers on future scenarios, with a lens on a challenge in a particular community, region or technology. Combinations on sustainability, energy transition, climate, circular (bio) economy, and policy, innovation and transition I will work on with colleagues."
