IN MEMORIAM: Maarten Dingemans

Maarten Dingemans passed away due to heart failure in the hospital on January 12, 2017. Maarten was born 15 Aug 1943 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, where he attended high-school at the Lorentz Lyceum. He started his studies at Delft University of Technology in 1962; initially in Mechanical Engineering, and later in the Faculty of Mathematics. After receiving his Ir degree in Mathematics from Delft University of Technology in September 1970, Maarten started working at Delft Hydraulics in 1970 as a Mathematical Engineer until his retirement in 2007. During his career at Delft Hydraulics, Maarten involved in numerous coastal research grants and industrial engineering projects. One of the well-known laboratory benchmark experiments have been nick-named as “Dingemans’ bar” experiment. On November 21, 1994 Maarten received his PhD degree from Delft University of Technology. Prof. dr. ir. A.J. Hermans was his promoter. The World Scientific Publishing Co later published his doctoral thesis, entitled “Water wave propagation over uneven bottoms”, as a two-part book with the same title in 1997. Many students, researchers and engineers in the coastal engineering community have studied and referenced this book. In 1985 he continued working at Delft Hydraulics at De Voorst and he moved his family to Emmeloord. On September 1st 2007, at age of 64, he officially retired from Delft Hydraulics. However, he kept himself busy attending conferences and workshops all over the world, and writing and reviewing various articles. At the time of his passing he was still working on an article together with Dr. ir. Gert Klopman. Throughout his entire life Maarten has faced continued health challenges. His courage to cope with ill health has always been inspiration to many of his friends and colleagues. Maarten enjoyed cycling, especially cross-country bicycle journeys during his healthy days. He once wrote: “Long-distance cycling to and from work stimulates the realization that things do not run as smoothly as one wishes they should.” Maarten’s biggest loss in life was the passing of his wife Marja (also a mathematician and a colleague at Delft Hydraulics) 21 years ago now. Maarten dedicated his book to the memory of his beloved wife Marja.