All Good Things Must Come to an End

Marieke Musegaas and Nick Huberts are PhD students at the Department of Econometrics and OR. Marieke’s field of research is cooperative game theory and especially OR-games. She likes doing sports, playing board games and going on holidays. Nick’s field of research applies game theory to a Real Options setting which analyzes strategic investment decisions under uncertainty. He likes to play (board) games, discover the secrets of Europe’s beautiful nature, attend festivals and study Hermetic and Thelemic traditions.

It was like yesterday that we, as small innocent high school kids studying hard on our final exams, were to decide upon our studies. Both of us decided to go for Econometrics and Operations Research. Just as our final exams then symbolized the end of our high school life, so we have almost arrived upon another end of a chapter in our lives. After three years of being a PhD student, only a few months are left before we wave goodbye to Tilburg. This is another chapter that we are about to close, but there will still be more chapters to come.

We are not the only ones who will leave Tilburg University soon. Apart from other PhD students, there are also some professors who will retire and thus leave our university. For example, it will not be many years before we will have to miss the great teachings in Microeconomics by Prof. dr. Dolf Talman. Have we not all grown up with his funny jokes? Besides from Prof. dr. Dolf Talman, also the guy who introduced us to the wonders of the world of asset pricing will leave our department. Not only bachelor students, but also future master students will have to survive without Prof. dr. Hans Schumacher. Many business students will remember the always devoted Dr. Gert Nieuwenhuis. EOR students will most likely only know him from Risk Theory, but he has also been of great value to the department and will retire soon.

When we leave the nest, we shall not be afraid the world will run out of newborns

When one door closes another opens. Our department will not empty out since we can welcome at least three new colleagues: Dr. Jochem de Bresser, Dr. Anne Balter and Dr. Nikolaus Schweizer. After a small adventure in Groningen, Dr. Jochem de Bresser returns to Tilburg, while Dr. Anne Balter and Dr. Nikolaus Schweizer are new faces in Tilburg.

Just like in our department, students come and leave in the bachelor and master program. Many of you will finish their thesis this summer. Some are doing this by means of an internship, others are working on a theoretical thesis. For the bachelor students the chapter will not be closed yet, because many of you will continue their studies with a master program. However, many master students will close another chapter of their lives and will finally have a decent job. Nevertheless, the university is very happy to welcome many new students in the program for the next academic year. And so, when we leave the nest, we shall not be afraid the world will run out of newborns, a.k.a. freshmen.

Time flies when you are having fun and, as with every chapter in your life, the years go by. Also the past academic year has flown by as this is already our last column to write. But who knows what will come next to us? We wish you all a very nice summer and all the best for whatever comes to you after this academic year.

Text by: Nick Huberts & Marieke Musegaas