Annelies Johanna de Kock
Premium memorialLovingly known as “Lies”
14 February 1980 — 12 November 2024 · aged 44
TU Delft coastal engineer, mother of two and the colleague who made every meeting kinder
Delft, Netherlands Born in Eindhoven, North Brabant Resting at Jaffa Cemetery, DelftAbout Annelies
Annelies de Kock had a rule for meetings: if nobody has laughed in the first ten minutes, somebody has to be told off. She rarely had to enforce it, because she was usually the one laughing, a loud, unguarded laugh that carried down the corridors of the Faculty of Civil Engineering at TU Delft.
She was born in Eindhoven in 1980, the daughter of a Philips engineer and a primary school teacher, and grew up with a father who told stories about a country on the other side of the world. She studied civil engineering at TU Delft, took her master's in hydraulic engineering in 2004 and a doctorate in 2009 on how storm surges behave when they meet a river delta. Her work at Deltares and TU Delft helped the Netherlands, and later Indonesia, think about living with water instead of against it. In 2012 she travelled to Bandung and Jakarta with her father, to see the city of his childhood and a coastline that was sinking.
As a supervisor she was demanding and kind in equal parts. She read every draft within forty-eight hours and once drove a doctoral candidate to hospital herself before returning to finish the seminar. She became associate professor in 2019. Colleagues remember her skates in the corner of her office, her habit of explaining difficult things with a coffee cup and a spoon, and the afternoon she built a dike out of cutlery to make a point to a visiting minister.
In 2013 she married Maarten van Gelder, whom she had met on a rowing trip, and they had Jip in 2017 and Sanne in 2020. She played field hockey on Sunday mornings, skated on natural ice on the few days a decade that the canals froze properly, and sang, badly and joyfully, in the shower and the car.
Annelies died on 12 November 2024 at home in Delft, after a short illness faced with the same honesty she brought to everything, with Maarten and the children beside her. She leaves Maarten, Jip, Sanne, her mother Truus, her brother Rob, and a great many people whose work and lives she made a little lighter.
“If nobody has laughed in the first ten minutes, something is wrong.”
- Place of birth
- Eindhoven, North Brabant
- Resting place
- Jaffa Cemetery, Delft
- Passed away
- 12 November 2024, Delft
Celebration of Life
Wednesday, 20 November 2024 at 07:00 UTC
Add to calendarMemorial fund
Fund for Jip and Sanne
Support for Maarten and the children, with any surplus funding a travel grant in Annelies's name for young coastal-engineering researchers.
$5,215.50 raised of $8,000
65%20 recent contributions
- MZ
Marco Zhu gave $237.50 · 1y ago
“A small token of love.”
- AN
Anonymous gave $237.50 · 1y ago
“A small token of love.”
- MT
Marcelo Tavares gave $237.50 · 1y ago
“In honour of a wonderful woman.”
- MC
Maeve Costello gave $47.50 · 1y ago
- PW
Putri Wulandari gave $190 · 1y ago
“With love from the diaspora.”
Life journey
MSc in Civil Engineering (Hydraulic Engineering)
TU Delft1998 – 2004 · Delft
Graduated cum laude with a thesis on tidal inlets.
Researcher and flood-risk adviser
Deltares2009 – 2014 · Delft
Advised on delta programmes in the Netherlands and Indonesia.
Married Maarten van Gelder
2013 · Delft
Eleven years of marriage and two children.
Assistant, then Associate Professor of Coastal Engineering
TU Delft2014 – 2024 · Delft
Supervised eleven PhD students from seven countries.
Volunteer junior coach
Delft hockey club2018 – 2024 · Delft
Coached Saturday-morning hockey for eight-year-olds.
Young Engineer Award
Royal Netherlands Society of Engineers (KIVI)2016 · The Hague
For research on delta flood protection.
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Family & connections
Also remembered on Evermore
Annelies is survived by
- Maarten van Gelder· Spouse
- Jip van Gelder· Son
- Sanne van Gelder· Daughter
- Truus de Kock-Smits· Mother
- Rob de Kock· Brother
Tributes & memories
6 people have shared a memory of Annelies.
Knew Annelies? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- DB
Colleague at Deltares
She made young researchers feel like colleagues from their first day. Her own work will outlast her by decades: the models she built are being used in Rotterdam and Jakarta right now, quietly keeping water where it belongs. That is a very Annelies sort of immortality.
- TH
Hockey teammate
She was the worst striker our team has ever had and the best captain. She tackled with her whole heart, apologised in the same breath, and ran the post-match cake rota like a naval campaign. We will play on Sunday in her number. It's fourteen.
- PD
Her father's old colleague at Philips
I last saw Annelies at her father's funeral, three years ago, when she gave the speech. She said her father taught her that curiosity is a form of courage. The room went silent. I thought: that is exactly right, and she is exactly the person to say it.
- PW
PhD student from Jakarta
When I arrived in Delft knowing nobody, Annelies invited me to Sunday lunch. She cooked rendang from her father's recipe book. 'It's not very good,' she said. It was wonderful. She told me my country's coastline was the most important problem in her field and that she would help for as long as I needed. She did.
- MB
Friend since primary school in Eindhoven
Lies and I met at six, arguing over a swing. We never stopped arguing and we never stopped being friends, which is the secret of both. On the day she died I went to the swing in the park and sat on it for an hour. She would have called that sentimental. She would have been right.
- PV
Head of department, TU Delft
Annelies brought two cups to every meeting, one for herself and one for the person who looked most tired. She did not think of it as kindness. She thought of it as good engineering: people think better when they are warm. I shall hold the next meeting with two cups.
