In Memoriam Loran van Baardewijk

It was with shock and great sadness that we learned that our young colleague Loran van Baardewijk suddenly passed away during his holiday in Thailand.

Loran was a PhD student in the Organisation and Management team at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, working on a research project on the responsiveness of inter-municipal cooperations. His loss has come as a great shock to all our colleagues.

Although Loran started as a PhD student only ten months ago, he quickly developed into a promising researcher. In a very short time, he had a good overview and understanding of the existing scientific literature. He managed to set out his ideas for the research clearly and coped well with feedback on his work. Loran was working on the first article of his dissertation, a systematic literature review. His supervisors will complete and publish this work posthumously, with him as the first author, in honour of his work and memory.

Colleagues praise Loran for his warm character; he was always positive, with a smile, in for a chat, genuinely interested in others, empathetic, down-to-earth and balanced. Loran quickly found his place in the team and got along well with his fellow PhD candidates.

He was interested in the work of others and always had a kind word for others. Perhaps most striking was his relaxed and optimistic attitude to life. Loran faced every challenge calmly and always remained positive. We will miss him terribly.

We wish his family, friends, and colleagues much strength with this great loss.

Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Semiha Denktas, interim Dean ESSB

Department of Public Administration and Sociology
Laura den Dulk, Chair

Team Organisation and Management
Sandra van Thiel, team lead