Professor Hans J. A. van Ginkel was born in Kota-Radjah (Bandar Acheh, Indonesia) on 22 June 1940.

In l966, he completed his M.Sc. studies at Utrecht University in human and physical geography, anthropology and history.

In l979, he defended his Ph.D. thesis.

He was a member — and is now an honorary member — of the Commission on the History of Geographical Thought of the International Geographical Union (IGU), was the Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 28th International Geographical Congress (The Hague, 1996: “Land, Sea and the Human Effort”) and first member and then Board Chair of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (1986-2000).

Having a strong interest in internationalization, Hans van Ginkel has contributed to numerous international organizations. In 1992, he became a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations University; in 1994 also of UNESCO’s Advisory Group for Higher Education and in 1996, member of the Steering Committee for UNESCO’s World Conference on Higher Education (Paris, 1998).

In 1992, he was appointed to the Social Sciences Council of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Prof. van Ginkel also served as a member and Vice-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Asian Institute of Technology, AIT, Bangkok, as well as a member of the Governing Board of UNESCO-IHE in Delft and of the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Social Sciences (ISS), The Hague.

In 1994, he received a Knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands’ Lion from Queen Beatrix.