Van Duren was educated in the fields of Business Information Management (Tilburg University) and Energy Science (Utrecht University) and obtained his PhD in Applied Physics/Materials Science at TU Berlin. He enjoys working at HIMS: “I am excited about the international and diverse environment, with ambitious researchers, technicians, business developers and other people facilitating the research and education in chemistry and molecular sciences.” He also feels connected to the research fields of the institute: “It is highly interdisciplinary and relevant for the development of fundamental knowledge and innovative applications for solutions to societal challenges in many areas, such as energy, health and food.”

Strategic developments and interdisciplinary collaboration

Throughout his career, Van Duren has worked in various research as well as Information Management positions. In his last job before joining HIMS he was a Senior Policy Advisor and Programme Coordinator at the Dutch Research Council NWO in the field of Chemical Sciences & Physics. There he worked on various Public-Private Partnership programmes, coordination of call for proposals, event coordination and policy & organizational developments. Van Duren coordinated several strategic initiatives and was a (knowledge)secretary at ChemistryNL and MaterialenNL. Hewas also one of the founders of Computational Science NL.

Van Duren succeeds former manager Marcel Bartels, who started last year as Impact Developer Sustainability Research at Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA), and Magdaleen Timmermans-Wiersma who has served HIMS as interim manager since June 2023.