Rudolf Van Renesse

Induction Year: 2013

Rudolf Van Renesse was a significant contributor to the cause of protecting banknotes and security documents through his inventions, writing,teaching and conferences Ruud, as he was known, graduated from the Technical Academy for Photography in the Hague in 1965 with a qualification in Scientific Photography.

He first got involved with document security in 1966 when he joined the TNO Institute of Applied Physics in Delft, The Netherlands where he remained for 36 years, becoming Senior Research Engineer. Ruud published dozens of scientific papers, and he is the named inventor of nine patents awarded from 1972 through 2005.

He worked on projects for Joh.Enschede the printer of Dutch banknotes, including the recognition of intaglio printing that led to the Intaglio Scanning and Recognition Device(ISARD),as well as the development of watermark barcode recognition in Dutch Guilder banknotes.

Ruud participated in the development of Intaglio ink measurement methods for the international Intaglio Research Group.He established Van Renesse Consulting in 2002, on his retirement from TNO

Ruud’s most important contributions resulted from his focus on optical or overt security and anti-counterfeiting features.

His book, Optical Document Security, now in its third edition, has become the standard reference on this topic.The book also led to the establishment of the Optical Document Security Conference that he chaired for many years.

Through his book,the conferences, his short courses, tutorials and consulting projects, Ruud Van Renesse raised awareness, spurred the development of standards, and stimulated technology developments for optical items that are now used on the majority of currencies.

He will be remembered for having brought rigor to the understanding of the hierarchy of security document inspection and authentication.