Rik Pintelon was born in Gent, Belgium, on December 4, 1959. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1982, a PhD in engineering in 1988, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.

Over the course of his long career, Pintelon was coauthor of 4 books on System Identification and published more than 260 articles and gave countless lectures. He received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions, including the 2012 IEEE Joseph F. Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement (IEEE Technical Field Award).

He received the 2008 IOP outstanding paper award (best paper in Measurement Science & Technology), the 2014 Martin Black prize (best paper in Physiological Measurement), the 2014 Andy Chi award (best paper in IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement), the 2020 Silver Medal for being the second most published author of all time in the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, and several honorary positions.

As a scientist, Pintelon was best known for many studies related to system identification, signal processing, and measurement techniques. He developed and provided important theoretical insights for building mathematical models of dynamic systems from experimental data. A man of honesty and positive energy, Pintelon touched the lives of his many colleagues and students, including myself. Thank you Rik for being my mentor, you were a source of inspiration. Today is a sad day for me.

Rest in peace.

Benjamin