Personal

bullet My favorite sport nowadays is squash, although I used to play badminton intensively. If you are a student following one my courses and feeling lucky, why not challenge me for a game of squash or badminton? Go ahead, make my day, reserve a court. I also accept challenges by professors. The count of students who took on this invitation is at *5*; the professor count is at *2*.
bullet I have a passionate interest in the history of ancient Rome. On my holidays, I visited Roman archeological sites in Austria, England, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Turkey, and Wales. An enjoyable introduction into the era following the fall of the Roman republic is the book I, Caesar: Ruling the Roman Empire by Phil Grabsky. I would also recommend Rubicon by Tom Holland about how the Roman republic came to an end.
bullet Some movies that I am fond of:
Brothers (2009)
The Reader (2008)
El Laberinto del Fauno (2006)
Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (1998)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)
Trust (1990)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
The Unbelievable Truth (1989)
Platoon (1986)
Blade Runner (1982)
Graduate, The (1967)
Shichinin no samurai (1954)
bullet Would you be looking for a present for me (for an invited talk, as a bribe or otherwise), don't bother with wine. I would be delighted with a book token ('boekenbon'), in particular an Amazon Kindle Gift Card. 
bullet My Ph.D. defense on August 23, 2002, was photographed by prof. Paul de Bra, my former Computer Science graduate supervisor and also a member of my Ph.D.defense committee. My thesis was nominated for the 2003 ASML award, the price for the best TU/e thesis (which I did not get though!).
bullet In 2003, the TU/e hosted the Petri nets conference. As our honorary guest, we welcomed Carl Adam Petri himself. You can see me talking here with him, just after the he was awarded Commandership in the Order of the Dutch Lion. That grade is usually only conferred upon Dutch Nobel Prize winners. Prof. Petri passed away on July 2, 2010.
bullet The then rector of the TU/e, prof.dr.ir. Hans van Duijn, can be seen congratulating me with my appointment to associate professor in 2009. As you can guess, I am the one with the broad smile.