Kees Teer (6 June 1925 – 18 January 2021) was a Dutch electrical engineer. He was director of the

Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium The Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium (English translation: ''Philips Physics Laboratory'') or NatLab was the Dutch section of the Philips research department, which did research for the product divisions of that company. Originally located in the ...

from 1968 until 1985.

Career

Teer was born in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

on 6 June 1925. He studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

and obtained his degree in 1949. On 1 September 1950 he started working for the

as a scientific employee in the television division under dr. Haantjes. In 1959 he obtained his doctorate at Delft University of Technology with a thesis titled: "Some investigations on redundancy and possible bandwidth compression in television transmission". The same year he became research group leader of electroacoustics and magnetic registration at the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium. In 1966 Teer was named deputy director of the Philips Natuurkundig Laboratorium and he became director in 1968. In this capacity he was responsible for all electronical systems. During his time as director there were major developments in the field of consumer electronics such as

Video Cassette Recording Video Cassette Recording (VCR) is an early domestic analog recording format designed by Philips. It was the first successful consumer-level home videocassette recorder (VCR) system. Later variants included the VCR-LP and Super Video (SVR) forma ...

and the

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

, in which Philips played a large role. From 1982 to 1985 Teer was

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

. He retired in 1985. After his retirement Teer subsequently became member of the

Scientific Council for Government Policy The Scientific Council for Government Policy (Dutch: Wetenschappelijke Raad voor het Regeringsbeleid, WRR) is an independent think tank of the Government of the Netherlands based in The Hague, whose members include prominent social scientists, ec ...

. In 1988 he was appointed professor in extraordinary service for

research management Research is " creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness ...

at Delft University of Technology. At the privatization of the Koninklijke PTT Nederland in 1989 Teer became commissioner on the

supervisory board In corporate governance, a governance board also known as council of delegates are chosen by the stockholders of a company to promote their interests through the governance of the company and to hire and fire the board of directors. In civil s ...

. In 1974 Teer was elected a Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

. He was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1977. Teer died in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...

on 18 January 2021, aged 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teer, Kees 1925 births 2021 deaths Delft University of Technology alumni Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology Dutch electrical engineers Fellow Members of the IEEE Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Scientists from Haarlem