Ton Backx has been Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Eindhoven University of Technology since 2006. Since 1990 he has been part-time professor at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Control Systems group. Ton Backx is specialized in the field of process identification, model based process control and model reduction and its applications to a wide range of processes in hydrocarbons processing, chemical processing, glass manufacturing and steel production. He was one of the founders and former CEO of IPCOS, a company specialized in the field of high performance model predictive control and process optimization. For the past two decades Ton has had senior management positions within Setpoint, AspenTech, IPCOS and Eindhoven University of Technology. He also has worked as principal consultant for Hydrocarbon Processing Industries, Chemical Processing Industries and Glass Industries doing process performance improvement studies and supervising model based control and optimization projects. He has initiated, supervised and been involved in several major European research projects in the field of process modeling, model based process control and model reduction– among others IMPACT, INCOOP, POLYPROMS, SINC-PRO, PROMATCH, CRYPTO.