In Memoriam Chris Vissers

Last week we received the sad news that our former colleague Chris Vissers has passed away.

Chris had been associated with our university since 1965 and meant a great deal, both to UT as a university and to the many people with whom he worked closely. We knew Chris as sociable, driven, entrepreneurial who was always looking for new ways to bring science, education and practice together. This entrepreneurial spirit is reflected throughout his career: from his role in international standardisation, the founding of the cross-faculty department TIOS, to the founding of CTIT, TRC and TI, through which he left his mark on research and collaboration within and beyond the UT right up until his retirement. He was also closely involved in supervising many PhD candidates and in start-ups such as ITA BV, in which he was able to translate his scientific insights into everyday practice. In recognition of his exceptional contributions, he was appointed Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Chris was born in Sneek in 1941 and studied Electrical Engineering in Delft. After a brief period at Bell Labs in New Jersey (USA), he joined the UT in 1965, then still the Twente University of Technology, in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. In 1981 he founded the IPS department (Interface, Protocol & Service Systems) within the new Faculty of Computer Science, followed in 1989 by the founding of the TIOS department (Tele-Informatics & Service Systems), which was positioned within both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. IPS and TIOS also gave rise to the language LOTOS, which formed the basis for the spin-off company ITA-BV, focused on developing and marketing tools for large-scale distributed systems. In 1992 Chris became Scientific Director of TRC (Telematics Research Centre), a public-private partnership, and he was involved in the establishment of a dedicated Telematics degree programme. From 1997 onwards he continued this work as Scientific and General Director of the Telematica Instituut, a leading Dutch Technological Top Institute, until his departure from there and from the UT in 2006.

We are grateful that, shortly beforehand, close colleagues with whom Chris had maintained a warm bond even after leaving UT were able to say a personal goodbye to him. We last saw Chris on campus at the Dies Natalis in 2025. This was typical of Chris, who remained engaged with our university he held so dear right up until the end.

We are deeply grateful to Chris for everything he meant to the University of Twente, in education, research and entrepreneurship, and for the warmth and connection he always brought to it. We wish his wife Anneke, his family, and all of Chris's other loved ones great strength in coping with this profound loss.

The condolence gathering and farewell will take place on Friday 17 July 2026 at 2:30 pm in Hommerts (Friesland).