Giljam Bierman received the 4TU.SAI Stan Ackermans Medal during the welcome event for the the new
Engineering Doctorate (EngD) trainees on 2 February 2023. This medal is awarded by the 4TU.Stan
Ackermans Instituteās board to persons that have made exceptional contributions to the post-Master
designer programmes at the 4 Technical Universities. The medal is a tribute to Stan Ackermans the
former rector magnificus at Eindhoven Technical University who has initiated and promoted the designer
programmes since 1988 until his premature passing away in 1995.
Giljam Bierman, who is a MTD/PDEng/EngD graduate himself, has served the post-Master (MTDPDEng-
EngD) designer programmes in The Netherlands full-time for 32 years. After having graduated
from the designer programme āProcess Developmentā at Twente University in 1991, he joined the
Twente design education team as project manager responsible for project acquisition and designer
trainee supervision.
At the end of the 1990ās Giljam moved to TU Delft and was instrumental in the transition of the ChemE
Process & Equipment Designer progamme to international recruitment and hiring. With the professors
Johan Grievink en Peter Jansens this has become a still lasting success. Over all these years Giljam
has been working with over 250 Engineering Doctorate trainees, in lecturing process simulation, plantwide
control but foremost the coaching in the Group Design Projects and Individual Design Projects in
cooperation with many scientific supervisors.
Giljam ensured that the (mostly) international trainees were introduced quickly to the systems (design)
approach and the way of working in Dutch academia and industries. A personal approach was key and
Giljam showed his exceptional talent in this. As a result all fresh top MSc graduates could really make a
true transformation in their design, technical and personal skills and the large majority (>80%) started
their careers in The Netherlands.
On behalf of the (many) colleagues from the ChemE, Process & Energy (3mE) and Biotechnology
departments Giljam has been working with, we congratulate Giljam with this major achievement and
thank him for all his efforts!