Short Biography

Wim H. Hesselink is a professor in the field of program correctness for the Groninger Universiteitsfonds. He was born February 21, 1946, in Deventer, the Netherlands. He received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Utrecht in 1975. After ten years of research in algebraic groups and Lie algebras he turned to computing science. In 1986/1987 he was on sabbatical leave with the University of Texas at Austin. He was from 1994 to 1997 Chairman of the Department of Computing Science at the University of Groningen. He is an editor of Science of Computer Programming. February 21, 2011, there was a Symposium for his 65th birthday.

A photograph of October 1995.

My research interests include aspects and modalities of nondeterminacy, predicate transformation semantics, concurrent and distributed programming, design and correctness of algorithms, geometric algorithms, and the use of mechanical theorem proving for correctness and design of concurrent and distributed systems.

I was married with Marijke Baljon, a psychotherapist. She died 21 february 2019. We have one daughter Katinka and two sons, Krijn Peter and Sieger.

Here I am entering the Aula of the University of Groningen at the defense of the thesis of Hans van Ditmarsch, November 20, 2000 (photograph made by Niels Taatgen).

Retirement on 21 February 2011

Photographs taken during the Retirement Symposium in the Zernikeborg and the ceremony in the Academy Building.

At my right hand, my coauthor Alex Aravind.

The Retirement Speech in the Aula of the Academy Building of the University of Groningen.

After the Retirement Speech. Next to me: my wife, my two sons, my daughter, and at the end Henk Broer, our research director.