Johan Bleeker
Johannes Alphonsus Marie "Johan" Bleeker (born 20 July 1942) is a Dutch space research and technology scientist. He was director of the Netherlands Institute for Space Research from 1983 to 2003. He was involved in the setting up of the Horizon 2000 and Horizon 2000+ long term space science programs of the European Space Agency. Career Bleeker was born in Leeuwarden on 20 July 1942. He attended the Hogere Burgerschool. Bleeker subsequently studied engineering physics at Delft University of Technology. He continued his studies at Leiden University, where in 1971 he obtained his doctorate under Hendrik C. van de Hulst with a thesis titled: The diffuse X-ray sky. Bleeker stayed at Leiden University and worked at the Cosmic-Ray Working Group until 1983, during the final two years he was group leader. In 1983 he became director of the Utrecht Laboratory for Space Research, which later became the Netherlands Institute for Space Research. Bleeker was director until 2003, he was succeeded by . Apart from his position at the Netherlands Institute for Space Research Bleeker was a professor of space research and exploration at Utrecht University. He was an extraordinary professor (Dutch: ) from 1985 to 1991, and was then appointed