Hans Mommaas appointed Director-General at PBL
The Dutch Council of Ministers has appointed Professor Hans (J.T.) Mommaas as Director-General of PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, per 1 November 2015. Hans Mommaas was nominated for this position by Ministers Blok (Housing and the Central Government Sector) and Schultz van Haegen (Infrastructure and the Environment). He succeeds Professor Maarten Hajer, who will leave PBL on 1 October, after a directorship of seven years. Hajer was PBL’s first Director-General.
Hans Mommaas (1955) currently is Professor of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the Department of Leisure Studies of Tilburg University, and at the NHTV Breda (Academy for Leisure), and he is Visiting Professor of Culture Management at the University of Antwerp. In addition, he is Science Director at TELOS (Brabant Centre for Sustainable Development), and associate member of the Council for the Environment and Infrastructure (Rli).
In 2000, Mommaas authored a WRR study on the ‘leisure industry’ both within and outside cities (De vrijetijdsindustrie in stad en land). In 2009, together with co-author N. van Boom, he published a study entitled 'Comeback cities'. In his position of member of the former VROM-council, he chaired committees that issued the following advice documents: 'Groeten uit Holland, Vrijetijd, Toerisme en Ruimtelijke kwaliteit' [Greetings from the Netherlands, Leisure, Tourism and Spatial Quality] (2006); 'Wisselende coalities' [Changing coalitions] (2008); and 'Duurzame verstedelijking’ [Sustainable urbanisation] (2010). Furthermore, he authored and co-authored numerous articles and studies at the interface of leisure, sustainability and spatial development.
Mommaas studied Western Sociology at the former Wageningen Agricultural College. In 1993, he obtained his PhD degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Brabant (Tilburg University), with his thesis 'Moderniteit, Vrijetijd en de Stad' [Modernity, Leisure and the City].
Next to his position at PBL, Hans Mommaas also will continue on as Professor at Tilburg University.