Andre Preumont was born in 1951. He obtained his PhD from the University of Liege (Belgium) in 1981 while he was working in earthquake engineering at Belgonucleaire. In 1985-6, he was visiting professor in the Aerospace and Ocean Engineering department at Virginia Tech (USA). He was appointed tot eh chair of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics of ULB (Universite Libre de Bruxelles) in 1987. He created the Active Structures Laboratory in 1995. He is also part-time professor at the University of Liege. He is the author of several books on active vibration control and random vibration. His current research interests are in mechatronics, active vibration control, adaptive optics and precision engineering. He has had visiting positions at UTC, Compiegne and INSA-Lyon (France).