In memoriam Leo Kroon

It is with deep regret that we have learned of the sudden death of our colleague Leo Kroon.

Leo G. Kroon worked as a Professor of Quantitative Logistics at our School and as a Logistics Consultant in the Department of Process Quality and Innovation at Netherlands Railways (NS).

During his long-standing career of more than 32 years at RSM, he served in many positions and roles: as scientific researcher, assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor, ERIM Member and ERIM Fellow, supervisor to many master students and PhD candidates, and as chairman of the Examination Board.

Leo was instrumental in building a world-class research group on decision support tools for the planning and real-time operations control of public transport systems. He taught applied mathematics to the first year bachelor students, and quantitative logistics to bachelor and master students, and PhD candidates.

He was a member of the NS team that won the prestigious INFORMS Edelman Award 2008 for its model-based contributions to the development of the 2007 NS timetable. He was the recipient of the 2008 ERIM Impact Award and he received the Umbra Erasmi.

We will remember Leo as a brilliant and erudite colleague who was committed to his students, PhD candidates, and colleagues he worked with. He was honest, humble, and gifted with a subtle sense of humour.

Our thoughts are with his partner Cisca.