Hans van Himbergen (1948) received a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Utrecht University in 1976 (with John Tjon). He then was a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemistry (with Robert Silbey) and at the University of California at Santa Barbara (with Douglas Scalapino), before becoming an assistant professor at UCSB and at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He returned to Utrecht in 1981 where he became a professor of theoretical condensed matter physics in 1989, after having spent another year at MIT, and a full professor of theoretical physics in 1992. He has conducted research in several areas of condensed matter and statistical physics. His enduring passion has been innovation in academic education at every level. He thus became heavily involved in advisory and leadership activities at graduate and undergraduate level. Over the years he stood at the cradle of the Dutch Research School for Theoretical Physics (of which he was the first scientific director in the period 1991-1995), University College Utrecht (the UU international liberal arts and sciences College of which he was also Dean in the period 2004-2008) and Junior College Utrecht (a new model of cooperation in science within a network of regional highschools and the university, now expanded into a program called "UTalent"). He was Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of UU (1995-2002) and promoted international relations for the university in various capacities (Dean of International Affairs, Vice-Rector for European Relations) between 2002 and 2013, when he became (formally) an emeritus professor. He then served (in a subsequent appointment) as program leader and honours director of Descartes College, the university-wide undergraduate honors program, and also taught courses at University College Utrecht, until his actual retirement in the summer of 2019. Based on his broad experience as a researcher, teacher, and activist for education optimally geared toward talent-development, he remains an advocate of 'science literacy' for all, as a key factor in understanding the societal challenges we face and in addressing them together.