Robbert Dijkgraaf

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Early life and educationEdit

Robertus Henricus Dijkgraaf was born on 24 January 1960 in Ridderkerk, Netherlands.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Dijkgraaf attended the Erasmiaans Gymnasium in Rotterdam, Netherlands.<ref name=":1" />

He started his education in physics at Utrecht University in 1978.Template:Citation needed After completing his candidate's degree (equivalent to BSc degree) in 1982, he briefly turned away from physics to pursue a painting education at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1984, he returned to Utrecht University and obtained an MSc degree in theoretical physics in 1986. He then went on to performing doctoral research under supervision of future Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft.<ref name=":1" /> He studied together with the twins Erik and Herman Verlinde.<ref name=":1" /> The original arrangement was that only one of the trio would work on string theory, but all three ended up writing their thesis on this subject. Dijkgraaf obtained his PhD degree cum laude in 1989.Template:Citation needed His thesis was titled A Geometrical Approach to Two Dimensional Conformal Field Theory.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Primary source inline

For a few years he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study, working alongside Edward Witten.<ref name=":1" />

WorkEdit

In 1992, he was appointed professor of mathematical physics at the University of Amsterdam,<ref name=":1" /> a chair he held until 2004, when he was appointed distinguished professor at the same university.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

From 2008 to 2012 he was president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected as one of the two co-chairs of the InterAcademy Council for the period 2009 to 2013.

Starting in 2012, Dijkgraaf became the director of the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent academic institution located in the town of Princeton, New Jersey.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On that date, he stepped down from his position as president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has served on numerous boards including at the Teylers Museum and the NEMO Science Museum.<ref name=":1" />

He regularly appears on Dutch television and has a monthly column in the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

Political careerEdit

Starting on 10 January 2022, Dijkgraaf served as the Minister of Education in the Dutch government. He introduced the Balanced Internationalisation Act in the House of Representatives in 2024. This bill would allow colleges and universities to limit the number of foreign students they accept, and it would enforce stricter regulations on using the Dutch language in academic studies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Dijkgraaf's term as minister ended on 2 July 2024, when the Schoof cabinet was sworn in.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other activitiesEdit

Simons Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors (since 2021)<ref>Robbert Dijkgraaf Joins Simons Foundation Board of Directors Simons Foundation, press release of 22 June 2021.</ref>
Scholars at Risk (SAR), Member of the Ambassadors Council<ref>Ambassadors Council Scholars at Risk (SAR).</ref>

Awards and honoursEdit

In 1998 Dijkgraaf was an Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2003, Dijkgraaf was awarded the Spinoza Prize.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In doing so he became the first recipient of the award whose advisor also was a recipient (Gerard 't Hooft received the first Spinoza Prize in 1995). He used part of his Spinoza Prize grant to set up a website targeted at children and promoting science: Proefjes.nl.

Dijkgraaf is an elected Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2003<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.

On 30 May 2012, he was elected an Honorary Member of both the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society and the Netherlands' Physical Society.<ref>Robbert Dijkgraaf krijgt Erelidmaatschap NNV en KNCV op Universiteit Twente - website University of Twente</ref> On 5 June 2012, Dijkgraaf was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.<ref>'Robbert Dijkgraaf geëerd met lintje – kritiseert onderzoekspraktijk Nederland', NRC.nl 5 juni 2012, geraadpleegd op 5 juni 2012.'Robbert Dijkgraaf geridderd', NU.nl 5 juni 2012, geraadpleegd op 5 juni 2012.</ref> In 2012, he became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.<ref>List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved 2012-11-10.</ref>

He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE) in the disciplines of informatics, mathematics and statistics in 2013.<ref>Current Fellows: Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf HonFRSE - website of The Royal Society of Edinburgh</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> That same year, he was elected as Member of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He received honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Leiden University in 2019.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2019, Dijkgraaf was awarded the inaugural Iris Medal for Excellent Science Communication, presented at the Evening of Science & Society in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, by Ingrid van Engelshoven, Minister of Education, Culture, and Science, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

He was appointed a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2025.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ResearchEdit

Dijkgraaf's research focuses on string theory and the interface of mathematics and physics in general.<ref name=":0" /> He is best known for his work on topological string theory and matrix models, and his name has been given to the Dijkgraaf-Witten invariants and the Witten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde formula.

Personal lifeEdit

Dijkgraaf is married to the author Template:Interlanguage link multi and has three children.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite news</ref> Their daughter Charlotte was born with a rare type of Leukemia and was the subject of book written by her mother Pia de Jong, Saving Charlotte: A Mother and the Power of Intuition.<ref name=":2" />

Electoral historyEdit

{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:Ambox Template:Main other }}

Template:Sronly
Year	Body	Party		Template:Abbr	Votes	Result		Template:Abbr.
Year	Body	Party		Template:Abbr	Votes	Party seats	Individual	Template:Abbr.
2023	House of Representatives	style="background-color:Template:Party color;"\|	Democrats 66	76 Template:Efn	3,247	9	Template:No2	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

BibliographyEdit

Research articlesEdit

Dijkgraaf has co-authored and published more than 70 research articles in the field of string theory and physics, with many other researchers including: Cumrun Vafa, Lotte Hollands, Erik Verlinde, Herman Verlinde, Hirosi Ooguri, Gregory Moore, Rajesh Gopakumar, Sergei Gukov, Miranda Cheng, and others. This is a select list of these works:

BooksEdit

NotesEdit

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ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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Robbert Dijkgraaf, official website
Robbert Dijkgraaf, official profile for IAS
Official website of Institute for Advanced Study

Template:Ministers of Education of the Netherlands Template:Fourth Rutte cabinet Template:Authority control