In Memoriam Wim van Etten

It is with deep sadness that we have learned of the passing of our former colleague, Professor Wim van Etten, former Professor of Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Twente. Wim was known to us as driven, versatile and connecting. Driven by his scientific curiosity (180+ publications, pioneering MIMO research), versatile through his broad commitment to teaching, governance and, later, telecommunications history, and connecting through his decades-long involvement in numerous boards and societies. Wim was 84 years old.

Wim was born in 1942 in Zevenbergen and obtained both his MSc and PhD degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology. After working in Eindhoven, where from 1976 he focused on optical fibre communications, he was appointed Professor of Telecommunication Engineering at the University of Twente in 1994. He authored or co-authored more than 180 scientific papers and wrote two authoritative books. Notably, two of his papers, fundamental contributions to what would later become the widely adopted MIMO concept, were included by the IEEE Communications Society in 2002 in a list of the most influential publications from its fifty-year history.

As a mentor, Wim was just as precise as in his own research: his PhD students still remember this well. Yet behind that exactingness lay a deep sense of care. Wim once shared with one of his PhD students that, looking back, he had grown most attached to those for whom the journey had taken the most effort, rather than the most brilliant ones. This reveals what truly drove Wim: it was always about the people, not only the science.

Beyond his scientific work, Wim was highly active. He held various governance positions, including chairman of NERG and roles within the Netherlands URSI Committee and the IEEE Benelux Section. In 2016 he founded the IEEE Benelux Life Member Affinity Group, and in 2023 he received the IEEE Region 8 Regional Individual Life Member Service Award for this work.

Following his retirement in 2007, Wim remained active: he continued supervising PhD students until 2014 and stayed involved with professional societies. He also discovered a new passion in the history of telecommunications, on which he gave presentations with great enthusiasm.

We are grateful to Wim for his contributions to teaching, research and collegiality at the University of Twente. We wish his family and loved ones strength in this time of loss.