When David van der Laan first visited Houston to see his girlfriend’s family, he didn’t expect the trip to alter the course of his academic career. But that visit and a few well-timed suggestions from her relatives sparked a journey that led the Dutch engineer to choose Rice University as his Ph.D. destination.
Van der Laan, who is completing his master’s degree in electrical engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands, will begin his doctoral studies at Rice this fall, focusing on neuroengineering. Though he also received an offer from the University of Cambridge, he said the decision to come to Houston felt natural.
“I visited Rice during one of my trips to Houston and was immediately drawn in,” van der Laan said. “It wasn’t just about being close to someone I love, though that was a big bonus. I saw a university full of smart, generous people doing really exciting work.”
His first impression of Rice came during an informal tour led by a faculty member, which quickly turned into a deep dive into the university’s cutting-edge research. “I started recognizing names from research papers I’d read and suddenly they were all in one room, talking to each other,” he said. “That was surreal.”
Raised in a family that straddled medicine and engineering with a doctor for a mother and a maritime engineer for a father, van der Laan found himself drawn to neuroengineering, a field that blends biology, medicine and electronics. “It’s the perfect combination of everything I love,” he said. “You get the technical challenge, but also the possibility to make a real difference in people’s lives.”
At Rice, van der Laan plans to explore various labs through the university’s rotation system before selecting a long-term research advisor. He’s particularly interested in working with faculty like John Seymour, Chong Xie, and Jacob Robinson and is excited by the proximity to the Texas Medical Center.
He’ll live in the Rice Graduate Apartments, where he’s already connected with a future roommate from Nebraska. “It felt like speed-dating for roommates,” he joked. “But we clicked, and even met up for lunch in the Netherlands.”
While his academic interests drew him to Rice, van der Laan admits that Houston’s character and his girlfriend’s roots made it feel like home before he even moved in. “Her family taught me all the local stuff, the loop, the rodeo, even cowboy hats,” he said. “I promised I’d buy a pair of boots if I chose Rice. So now I have to make good on that.”
With his thesis defense in Delft just days away, van der Laan is looking ahead to his arrival in Houston on August 15 and the start of orientation a few days later. “I’m just excited to grow as a researcher, a teacher, and a person,” he said. “Rice is where all those parts of me can come together.”