Honours for De Bende van Baflo Bill, too

Groningen mayor Den Oudsten awarded the royal honours at city hall on Tuesday. This year, six RUG employees were decorated.

De Bende van Baflo Bill, consisting of RUG employee Frank den Hollander, Peter de Haan and Alina Kiers, were made knights in the Order of Orange-Nassau. The three were lured to town hall by professor of Groningen language and culture, Siemon Reker.

According to Reker, the three have greatly contributed to Gronings as a language and have done much to improve its image. ‘Between the early eighties and now, this trio has boosted the language time and again. Both in the north of the Netherlands and beyond, they have acquired enormous popularity with a continuously changing and ever younger audience. They ensured that people came to the theatre who would otherwise not normally do so. With playfulness and modern humour, they’ve put the language in the foreground.’

Even more decorations

IT staffer Douwe Fokkinga was also named Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau. Fokkinga got an early start as a network expert in 1986, and is considered an Internet expert nowadays. Together with colleagues from other universities, Fokkinga constructed networks between different research institutions.

And even though no definitive decision has been made about the Yantai campus, the RUG considers Xuefei Knoester-Cao‘s role as Poppema’s right hand during the negotiations in China essential. She was also lauded for her contribution to the Dutch Study Centre. She, too, was named Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau..

Jan Visser was also awarded the title today. Visser is an analyst at the pharmacy department at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Many publications have seen the light of day thanks to his analytical powers. The RUG drew special attention to his active attitude and how friendly and open he is in his administrative work.

Frans Rutten also received the honour. It was awarded to him by Haren mayor Van Veen in the Academy building. Rutten has worked at the Faculty of Economics and Business and specifically focused on the internationalisation of the RUG, something the university says he greatly succeeded in. ‘Right from the start, he was a trendsetter when it came to different ways of international collaboration’, reads the nomination. He, too, will become a Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.

Kees van Vliet, who works at the CIT, has been named a Member in the Order of Orange Nassau. He is the sixth RUG employee to receive such an honour on Tuesday.

 

26-04-2016