Towards Scientific Leadership: Personal Development Advice for Young Academics

About J. W. (Hans) NiemantsverdrietJan-Karel Felderhof

Hans Niemantverdriet has 35 years experience in research and education in catalysis and surface chemistry. After retirement from the Eindhoven University of Technology (December 2015) he continues as Director of the SynCat@Beijing research institute and the private research enterprise Syngaschem BV in Eindhoven. In addition he is Honorary Distinguished Professor at the Cardiff Catalysis Institute of Cardiff University and supervised more than 25 PhD projects and 10 postdoc projects in government and industry funded research. He is the author of more than 280 peer-refereed publications and two text books and is frequently invited to speak at international conferences workshops and Summer schools on catalysis and surface science but also on e.g. presentation skills. In 2013 he founded Syngaschem BV and started to build up the SynCat@Beijing laboratory together with Synfuels China. All educational activities are organized under the SynCat Academy with scientific and personal development programs mainly in (but not limited to) China. Jan Karel Felderhof strives for enhancing organizations and people to their full potential. He does so by developing a source strategy based on the spirit of the organizations or companies he works for and the people that develop these organizations or companies. From this perspective he supports the design of strategy and organizational structures. He further 'catalyzes' the dynamics of the company by coaching and training team leaders and professionals on self-leadership and self-management to make them fully capable of exercising their accountabilities and responsibilities establishing an authentic and ambitious culture in the value chain not only with the employees but also with other stakeholders suppliers and clients. Besides serving as director Strategy Organisation and HR development at Syngaschem BV Jan Karel Felderhof is founder and owner of Impetus BV (1990) which enabled organizations in several branches (knowledge professional and services) in enhancing their strategy organization and people.