Robbert H. Dijkgraaf

Robbert Dijkgraaf is a distinguished mathematical physicist and academic leader who recently served as Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands. He is currently a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Amsterdam and the President-Elect of the International Science Council, the oldest and most representative organization representing the global science community headquartered in Paris. Before that he served for ten years as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Dijkgraaf’s research focuses on the interface between theoretical physics and mathematics where he contributed to the understanding of string theory, black holes and topological field theories. He is an experienced public policy adviser having served as president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the InterAcademy Partnership, the global alliance of science academies. For his contributions to science, he has received the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands, and has been named a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He is also a trained artist, writer, and popular lecturer. He was educated at Utrecht University working with Nobel Laureate Gerard ’t Hooft