Prof. André Preumont started his career in 1974 as mechanical engineer in an engineering company (Coppee-Rust) working for the steel industry in the Liege area (cold rolling mill). In 1976 he moved to the nuclear industry (Belgonucléaire) where he specialized in structural dynamics, earthquake engineering, and later in random vibrations. He was mainly concerned with the seismic behaviour of nuclear cores (both PWR and Fast Breeder). Prof. Preumont did his Ph.D. from 1978 to 1981 under the supervision of Prof. M. Geradin, while working for Belgonucléaire; the topic was the “Seismic analysis of pressure water reactor cores”; it was mainly concerned with nonlinear structural dynamics with impact, but it was also the starting point of his research work in random vibrations. Prof. Preumont created a course in Random Vibrations at the University of Liege at about that time. His work on the artificial earthquake generation and on the seismic behaviour of nuclear reactor cores was awarded the International Vinçotte Prize in 1983. Gradually, he got more interested in aerospace and, in 1985, Prof. Preumont was offered to go to the USA as Visiting Professor at the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. At the time, there was a tremendous interest in large space structures in the USA, mainly because of the “strategic defence initiative” and the space station program. He stayed there for a year and was initiated to the control of large space structures by Profs. R. Haftka and W.Hallauer; the former was a world renowned specialist in structural optimization and the latter was, at the time, one of the few experimentalists trying to implement control systems that worked on actual structures. When Prof. Preumont returned to Belgium he resumed his job for Belgonucléaire and looked for an academic position. In 1987, he was appointed at the chair of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics of the University ofBrussels (ULB). From then on, he shared his time between teaching and research in Structural Dynamics, Control, Robotics, and Mechanical Engineering. Since his appointment at ULB, his research activities have been divided into three themes :(i) Random vibrations, (ii) Active structures and (iii) Robotics and Mechatronics.
