Hans Jordens was born and raised in Haren. At age 17 he went to study Physics in Groningen. In 1971 he graduated in Groningen. After this he went to Lebanon, but because he could not get a job there, he went back to Winschoten. There he became a teacher at a high school. During his working life, he has taught secondary education for 10 years. However, there was a break of two years, when he was in Africa (Burkina Faso, French West Africa).
After his work in high school he got the chance to work at the University of Groningen which he seized with both hands. Because Mr. Jordens was no longer used to doing research, he has been dealing with issues in the world of education. It still took some effort to get them to allow Jordens to give lectures. Mr. Jordens was therefore quite pleased to get the faculty education award in 1996. Two years later he received the award for best lecturer from the Physics Student Consultation. Besides these two educational awards, he has also been given the Minnaerts prize. This is a biennial award of NVON (Dutch Association of teachers in the Sciences).
Besides his efforts for the Physics programme Jordens has also been increasingly concerned with Physics competitions for students in secondary education. From 1982 this was the Physics Olympiad, where he became president in 2008, re-elected in 2013 for a period until 2018. Also the Physics Tournament (International Young Physicists Tournament) in 1990, the Science Conference (International Conference for Young Scientists) in 1994 and the Science Olympiad (European Union Science Olympiad) in 2003 were added to his list. To coordinate the many competitions Jordens has established a federation of Physics competitions along with some colleagues in 1999. At the moment a few hundred organizations are affiliated with this federation.
In addition to coordinating Physics competitions for high school students, he is also closely involved in the creation and donation of tasks for two university Physics competitions: PION (since 1999) and PLANCKS (since 2014). The former is a national competition where undergraduate students can participate. The second has an international character with a scientific symposium as opening, both graduate and undergraduate students can join here.
In 1998 Mr Jordens, while in the service of the Faculty of Science, founded the Beta-support. That proved to be a winner. After only two years, it became a portal where hundreds of students each year got their questions answered in order to continue with their high school project. Since Groningen was not the only institution with such a portal, national coordination seemed obvious. The universities of Amsterdam, Delft, Leiden and Nijmegen were found willing to work together with the University of Groningen to establish a platform with a joint portal www.betasteunpunt.nl.
All his efforts have not gone unnoticed and he has also obtained the following appointments: 1. Fellow of the Institute of Physics (van de UK). 2. Lid van Verdienste of the NNV (Nederlandse Natuurkundige Vereniging)
Mr. Jordens became a honorary member of the FMF at the General Members Assembly of June 22, 2004. In his year on the board, he organized a foreign trip, introduced the constitution ribbons and implemented the change of name to FMF (from FMA). He was also closely involved in the organization of the lustrum in 1999. Even nowadays, the FMF can still count on him. Jordens still keeps contact with many members.