Kinematic design for precision mechanics - optical mounts, machine tools, robots, etc - is well known outside of the Dutch literature. It would still be interesting to know who your guy was talking about. Here’s a neat page: https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/865.21/topics/mechanical_des... And a nice overview paper from Arizona with a good bibliography: https://wp.optics.arizona.edu/optomech/wp-content/uploads/si...