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

Question

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?

It means they work in a country with a long aristocratic history and that they have a high opinion of themselves. — Cape Code, Commented Jul 8, 2014 at 22:14
@Jigg True about the tradition, less so about the high opinion. It is listed as "Formally:" on that guy's site, and not with the primary display of the name. I think it's preferable to list your full title somewhere on your site (some people may need it for formal documents), even if you hardly ever use it yourself. — Angew is no longer proud of SO, Commented Jul 9, 2014 at 8:51
Academic titles become part of a person's legal name (so would have to be stated on certain documentation) in some countries (Austria is one, I believe); to see the full title is certainly not necessarily evidence that the person is boasting. — dbmag9, Commented Apr 17, 2015 at 18:19

TRiG · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-09 10:49:20Z

27

Here you go:

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

TRiG

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answered Jul 8, 2014 at 20:58

Marc Claesen

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I would add that drs. should not be confused with dr. This title, the Doctorandus, simply means that the holder is entitled to begin PhD research.
– Moriarty
Commented Jul 9, 2014 at 18:19
1

Indeed. As a Dutch-English translator myself, I always recommend following JurLex in this matter when faced with translating one of these strings: drop all but the most important one. E.g.: prof. dr. ir. ABC = Prof. ABC / prof. dr. ABC = Prof. ABC / prof. drs. ABC = Prof. ABC / prof. mr. ABC = Prof. ABC, etc.
– Michael Beijer
Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 21:56

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