Frank Baaijens is a full professor of Soft Tissue Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His areas of expertise include computational (bio)mechanics, rheology and regenerative medicine. Frank Baaijens currently serves as Rector Magnificus at TU/e. His focus is building on the TU/e’s strengths with the entire community, strengthening the university’s international position and working on finding solutions to current and future societal challenges, bridging education and research. Frank Baaijens is committed to the future vision and mission of TU/e, outlined in the strategy 2030 plan. This plan aims to further excellence of the university in education and research, and impact on society. The university will strengthen its foundations, foster cross-disciplinary research, and will continue to innovate our educational methods and programs to educate next generations of engineers and scientists.

Frank Baaijens received his PhD from TU/e in 1987 with prof. J.D. Janssen as his supervisor. In 1985 he joined Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven to work on Computational Mechanics. Since 1990, he has been part time professor on Computational Rheology at the Eindhoven University of Technology. In July 1995 he was appointed full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In October 2002 he was appointed full professor in the Department of BioMedical Engineering (Soft Tissue Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering). From 2003 to 2007 he was Dean of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and from 2007 to 2014 he was Scientific Director of the national research program on BioMedical Materials (BMM). He has published over 300 peer reviewed papers in international scientific journals and has graduated over 50 PhD candidates. Research in his group resulted in the founding of a number of biomedical technology companies.