This week we received the sad news that one of our former professors, Christopher Pollitt, passed away after a long period of illness.
Prof.dr. Christopher Pollitt was Professor of Public Management from 1999-2006 at the Department of Public Administration. He was one of the founding fathers of the Master International Public Management and Policy (IMP). Together with Frans van Nispen he developed this first international master at the faculty. From the start on, in 2004, it was a highly successful programme. Furthermore, he managed to bring the research school, the Netherlands Institute of Government (NIG), to Rotterdam. He was academic director of NIG and worked closely together with executive director Sandra van Thiel and office manager Vicky Balsem. After his leave in 2006 to Leuven University he stayed in close contact with his Rotterdam colleagues and was still involved in projects like COCOPS.
Christopher Pollitt has an outstanding reputation as scholar in the field of public management. He is the author of more than 60 refereed scientific articles and author or editor of many scholarly books. His Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis has become a standard text internationally. He will be remembered as a very pleasant and eloquent colleague who carefully and gently formulated his propositions and whose lectures were very much appreciated by students. As an academic leader he was a stimulating, sometimes slightly provocative person who stimulated younger staff to develop new insights and grow.
We wish his wife Hilkka and his family lots of strength in this sad and difficult time.
On behalf of the board of the Department of Public Administration and Sociology
Romke van der Veen