In Memoriam: Gerard Wienk
Playing soccer with his grandchildren! Gerard's eyes sparkled when he had made the street unsafe again as a “proud young grandfather”. Just a few more years and then he would retire! Time to enjoy traveling and doing fun things with the grandchildren! Gerard counted down: one more generation of Ph.D. students, or in ordinary language: another four years.
Gerard was an engineer and technician at the IC Design group, within the Electrical Engineering department of the University of Twente. Gerard helped the Ph.D. students to design their chips. Gerard knew the secret ways and tricks in the design process like no other. Thanks to Gerard, many dozens of designs have been manufactured. That design work has to be very precise because one mistake will cause a non-functional chip. And one can't fix anything later. And Gerard was certainly precise! The coffee corner was his domain. If you put a dirty cup in the sink or started making smoke signals with a microwave meal, Gerard acted like an old-fashioned constable. Gerard hung funny instructions in the toilets about “how to use the toilet”, or rather: how not to do that. It did work!
Gerard regularly went swimming during lunchtime and since he had to work at home, he went cycling every day. He was certainly fit. A strong man. Then he became tired and short of breath. Gallstones we thought, but a blood test unexpectedly brought bad news: acute leukemia. That was mid-December. The first chemo was hard, and it was clear that the second would be too much for Gerard. Now it got tricky, would leukemia come back soon? Unfortunately, yes. When Gerard could no longer be treated, he was allowed to go home by ambulance. Along the way, Gerard wanted to drive around the campus one more time to say goodbye to the place where he enjoyed working for 21 years. The flag is now at half-mast.
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We wish his wife Annelies, his daughter Laura, Derrik, his grandchildren Teun, Jan, Lies, and the rest of the family a lot of strength with this enormous loss.
Bram Nauta
Senior RF IC/application design engineer
3 年Very sad to hear that! My condolence to his family. May him Rest In Peace.
RF Wireless Engineer
3 年Heartful condolences! May his soul rest in peace. Strength to his family! A very helpful person indeed.. ??
IT Manager at Silicon Craft Technology PLC
3 年I had a few chances to ask for Gerard helps, really sad to hear this news. Rest in peace.
Analog IC Designer
3 年I didn't know him, but after reading Professor Nauta's text, somehow I regret not to do so. Rest in peace and my condolences to his family.?
Co-Founder, Principal Wireless ASIC Architect at SPARK Microsystems
3 年PhD candidates come and eventually go, but Gerard formed a bridge between the generations, so that much of the knowledge was retained. His helpfulness, intelligence and kindness have had a large influence on the succes of my own PhD. Rest now, Gerard, you will be sorely missed.