Announcing the 2026 SEFI Fellows

The European Society for Engineering Education is proud to announce the 2026 SEFI Fellows. The SEFI Fellowship is awarded to engineering educators who have dedicated over five years of meritorious service to the engineering education community.

Gillian Saunders-Smits (TU Delft)

Gillian Saunders-Smits has contributed to the field of engineering education for over 20 years, focusing on bridging the gap between educational research and STEM classroom practice.

As part of her exemplary SEFI leadership and service, she has served on the SEFI Board of Directors, co-organized the 2009 SEFI conference in Rotterdam, and has consistently contributed peer-reviewed papers, workshops, and reviewing services for both the Annual Conference and the European Journal of Engineering Education. Saunders-Smits also served as one of the three Editors-in-Chief of the SEFI Handbook on Teaching Transferable Competencies and Skills in Engineering, coordinating over 140 authors across 50+ chapters for its launch in Prague.

Saunders-Smits is an expert bridge-builder between researchers, engineers, and teachers, and has been an advocate highlighting the experience of neurodiversity in engineering education. She advanced inclusivity within the discipline by producing a seminal video in 2018 sharing her personal experience with neurodiversity, which she expanded into a series of institutional workshops and webinars.

In recognition of her two decades of systemic institutional support and service to the engineering education community, she has been awarded the SEFI Fellowship.

Jan van der Veen (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Jan van der Veen is a physics graduate from the University of Groningen who began his career as a teacher before transitioning to the University of Twente in 1990. There, his work centred on interdisciplinary project-based learning and teacher development, culminating in a PhD in e-learning in 2001 and an appointment as associate professor. He later joined TU Eindhoven as a full professor at the Eindhoven School of Education.

Van der Veen has made significant institutional contributions to engineering education. He co-founded and co-chaired the Dutch 4TU Center for Engineering Education, which has strengthened the international standing of the four participating technical universities. Additionally, he has been a long-term contributor to the global Teaching Culture community, advocating for academic career path reforms under the Recognitions & Reward movement.

An active leader within the SEFI community, van der Veen served on its board of directors and successfully transitioned the 2020 SEFI conference into a highly praised online format during the pandemic. He and his team also hosted the 2025 Engineering Education Research (EER) Summer School, and he has mentored new colleagues through the SEFI Doctoral Symposium on at least six occasions.

His editorial impact includes serving on the Editorial Board of the European Journal of Engineering Education since 2018. In this role, he has shaped journal strategy, co-edited a major special issue on interdisciplinary learning, and completed 36 constructive manuscript reviews. Known for his academic authority, optimism, and collaborative nature, van der Veen has been awarded the SEFI Fellowship in recognition of his extensive service to the field.

Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham)

Neil Cooke, Chair of the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Birmingham, has been named a 2026 SEFI Fellow in recognition of his service to the society and his career-long dedication to engineering education. At Birmingham, he led the creation of “The Birmingham Engineer,” an innovative professional identity framework designed to cultivate technical expertise alongside ethical leadership values in students. This framework has empowered Birmingham’s engineering students to not only master technical knowledge, but to develop a deeper understanding of professional values, ethics, and identity, preparing them to become both skilled engineers and true leaders in their field.

Within the SEFI organization, Cooke has provided extensive institutional leadership. As a former member of the Board of Directors, he served as the inaugural SIG Liaison Officer, bridging the gap between Special Interest Groups and leadership. He has also been instrumental in modernizing SEFI’s digital infrastructure, computer systems, and membership administration processes.

Under his leadership as co-chair of the Special Interest Group on Engineering Skills, the group grew into one of SEFI’s most active branches, producing the SEFI Handbook on Teaching Transferable Competencies and Skills in Engineering, which Cooke co-authored and edited. Most notably, Cooke co-hosts SEFI’s great dissemination success of recent years — the SEFI Podcast, alongside Natalie Wint. Now in its seventh season with 50 episodes to date, Cooke has achieved a feat many professional podcasters would envy: sustaining a genuine, growing audience for the frontiers of engineering education.