The Aula was filled to the brim with colleagues, friends, family and patients who wanted to hear what Frans would say in his final lecture to academia.
Frans shared his experience with some of his polio patients that had been part of his practice in his career as (post-)polio expert, and how he as head of the Department of Rehabilitation at AMC had been at the forefront of the academization of the field of rehabilitation medicine in the Netherlands. Professor Nollet also shared developing insights from the beginning of his career, when ‘movement’ was a stand-alone term in rehabilitation, and how, as the years had passed, he had come to conclude that ‘behaviour’ had to be added as part of the equation for the treatment to have full efficacy.
After the valedictory lecture, where fellow academics also showed their respects, a surprise speaker was announced. The vice-mayor of the city of Amsterdam, Alexander Scholtes, proceeded to give Frans Nollet a royal distinction in the order of Oranje-Nassau for his contribution to rehabilitation medicine and the combat of polio and its consequences over the previous four decades. We congratulate Frans, and wish him well in the years to come!
More information (in Dutch) available on the website of the city of Amsterdam.