With sadness, we heard that our colleague Gerrit Zilvold passed away on 19 March 2022.
Gerrit was trained as a rehabilitation physician in Amsterdam. His research concerned functional electrical stimulation of paralysed muscles in stroke subjects, that allowed them to lift their affected foot again during walking. He used electromyography and gait analysis to study the effect of muscle stimulation.
Early 80s, he became director of Rehabilitation Center Het Roessingh in Enschede. From the start, he contacted the University of Twente to start research in the area of rehabilitation technology. Hermie Hermens became the first student to work at Het Roessingh; he started working in the area of surface electromyography.
All three research areas became important at the University of Twente: electromyography, electrical stimulation and gait analysis. They currently remain essential themes in our current research.
In 1983, Gerrit Zilvold became full professor rehabilitation technology, the first on this area.
In 1990, a new research building at Het Roessingh premises was realised financed by a large gift that Gerrit attracted. Roessingh Research and Development (RRD) was established, and housed in this new building, that included the newest rehabilitation research equipment.
Under leadership of Gerrit and Hermie, RRD became a nationally and internationally leading research institute in the area of rehabilitation technology. Gerrit was very active in many gremia to promote rehabilitation technology. He attracted extensive funding for the ambitious research of RRD and UT. Chronic pain, an important theme of Het Roessingh, also became an important research area.
After his retirement, Gerrit continued to be active for many years. Together with Jan Feijen, he created the research fund TWIN (Applied Scientific Institute for Neuromodulation) with which many research projects could be funded.
We will remember Gerrit Zilvold as a pioneer in rehabilitation technology, who started the highly successful close collaboration between Het Roessingh and the University of Twente
We wish his family strength in coping with his loss.
Prof.dr.ir. Hermie Hermens, Prof.dr.ir. Peter Veltink
Biomedical Signals and Systems group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Prof.dr. Jan Feijen, former scientific director of the Biomedical Technology Institute (BMTI), now TechMed Institute
