professors - What do the Dutch academic titles "prof.dr.dr.h.c.ir." mean?

Some Dutch academics - I think probably full professors with chairs - have a rather confusing string of abbreviated titles.

One example is prof.dr.dr.h.c.ir. M.J. Plasmeijer, but many other examples can be found by searching for that string.

What do these titles actually mean, individually and collectively?

Answer

Here you go:

• prof is short for professor.


• dr is short for doctor, which signifies either MD or PhD.


• dr. h. c. stands for doctoratus honoris causa, which is an honorary title.



• ir stands for engineer (ingenieur).

In this case it means a professor (with a PhD) with an engineering background, who got an honorary title at some point.