The Institute for advanced Study has named mathematical physicist Robbert Dijkgraaf its new director, effective next July. Dijkgraaf will replace Peter Goddard, who will remain at the institute as a professor in the School of Natural Sciences.
Dijkgraaf, currently the president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and a professor of mathematical physics at the University of Amsterdam, will be the ninth director of the institute. He is famous in the scientific community for his contributions to understanding quantum field theory and string theory.
Dijkgraaf, member and visitor to the institute’s School of Natural Sciences in 1991 and 1992, was born in the Netherlands in 1960. He earned all his degrees from Utrecht University — bachelor’s in 1982, master’s in 1986, and Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1989.
He was a research associate in the physics department at Princeton University from 1989 to 1991. He also was a professor of mathematical physics at the Korteweg-de Vries Institute for Mathematics at the University of Amsterdam from 1992 to 2004
Dijkgraaf serves as the co-chair of the InterAcademy Council, the research council of the science academies of the world, which reports and advises on global scientific, technological, and health issues to governments and international organizations. He and his wife, author Pia de Jong, have three children.
#b#Institute for Advanced Study#/b#, Einstein Drive, Princeton 08540; 609-734-8000; fax, 609-924-8399. Peter Goddard, director. www.ias.edu
