The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has selected 17 new members. Of these, 16 are ordinary members and one is a foreign member. The Academy’s approximately 600 members are leading scientists and scholars active in every discipline. Membership is for life. The new members will be installed on Monday 30 September.
Professor of Experimental Genetics at Utrecht University and group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and the Oncode Institute
Thijn Brummelkamp has pioneered significant discoveries in the biomolecular sciences. For example, he developed several techniques for suppressing genes, including a unique method of large-scale gene function identification that is now widely used in international research. His research made it possible to identify genes critical to cell survival and genes that perform important functions, for example producing enzymes or repairing DNA. Brummelkamp's research group also helped shed light on the Ebola and Lassa viruses’ transmission mechanism. Brummelkamp has displayed an ability to turn discoveries into useful applications. He holds ten patents and has founded two successful companies based on his research, one of which develops drugs inspired by the interaction between human genes.
Professor of Socioeconomics at VU University in Amsterdam
Economist Klarita Gërxhani conducts innovative research at the interface between economics and sociology. She examines institutions, social status, and the mechanisms behind gender bias and labour market inequality. She is also interested in the informal economy, such as moonlighting, and employers' recruitment strategies. She combines several methods in her research, including laboratory and field experiments and survey data. For example, her experiments showed that women can solve mathematics problems as successfully as men, as long as they can work in seclusion. As soon as they are told that they will be compared to others, however, their problem-solving ability deteriorates, whereas men do better in the same circumstances. Gërxhani showed that these outcomes are related to deep-seated gender stereotypes around competence and empathy. Much of her research has policy implications, for example for promoting diversity and equality in organisations. She has shown that it is not enough to simply hire more women and minorities; it is also crucial to combat stereotypes and adjust working arrangements.
Professor of Metabolic Diseases at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University Medical Centre
Since the 1990s, Carla Hollak’s research has focused on rare metabolic diseases in adult patients, in particular lysosomal storage disorders. She set up an outpatient clinic in 2004 for adult patients and collaborated with other university medical centres on developing a network to establish guidelines for treatment. Hollak is a strong advocate of independent research, a view that has resulted in international publications and consensus on the effective use of what are often expensive treatments. She harnessed those experiences in her research on improving the accessibility and affordability of drug treatments for rare diseases, including alternative routes of production and payment. Hollak gained national fame when she worked with a hospital pharmacist to ensure that a medicine for a rare disease remained available through a pharmacy preparation. This led in 2019 to the founding of the Medicine for Society platform, in which Hollak links science to practice, i.e. from academic product development to regulatory access procedures. Hollak has gained praise as a leading figure in the field of socially engaged medicine and a driving force behind the debate around the accessibility and affordability of drugs.
Professor of Statistics at Radboud University Nijmegen
Jeanine Houwing-Duistermaat is a statistician with expertise in a wide variety of disciplines ranging from epidemiology, biology, biophysics, biochemistry and bioinformatics to medicine. The role of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important in this field, with biomedical research, for example, producing ever more and ever larger datasets. Combining such datasets poses new statistical challenges, such as when they must be integrated or their sizes reduced. Houwing-Duistermaat also specialises in epidemiological studies in which certain observations are missing, or where there are biases in the selection of participants, for example when a study examines only patients and their families, and not a cross-section of the population. Among other things, her research has revealed correlations between specific genes and diseases, and between health, lifestyle and air pollution in large cities.
Professor of Epidemiology and Genetics of Eye Diseases at Erasmus University Medical Centre and Radboud University Medical Centre
Caroline Klaver's epidemiological research straddles genetics and ophthalmology. Her own studies and her work in large-scale and multi-disciplinary collaborations have led her to identify genes and lifestyle factors that cause age-related macular degeneration, myopia, glaucoma, and retinal dystrophies - diseases that cause blindness. Klaver works on applying her research findings in actual interventions and recommendations, for example lifestyle tips to combat macular degeneration, or the 20-20-2 rule to prevent myopia in children: look up from the screen every 20 minutes and focus on a distant object for 20 seconds, and spend at least 2 hours every day outdoors. The rule went viral and is helping parents and teachers to protect children’s eyesight. Klaver makes frequent appearances on television and in the press and has created public websites that provide information on myopia and macular degeneration.
Professor of Biological Soft Matter Physics at Delft University of Technology
Gijsje Koenderink specialises in the physics of living cells and tissues. She unites the fields of physics, chemistry, materials science and biology in her research in order to investigate the role of mechanical forces on cells and tissues. Her aim is to understand how cells and tissues can combine mechanical strength with the ability to actively change shape. A fundamental understanding of these mechanisms may lead to new insights about the causes of cancer, fibrosis and other diseases. Koenderink is also a pioneer in synthetic cell biology, a field in which the aim is to build a fully functional cell from non-living parts. In the Dutch Research Council’s Gravitation Programme BaSyC - Building a Synthetic Cell, she is working to construct artificial membranes that will grow and divide on their own.
Professor of Civil Law at Leiden University
Vanessa Mak specialises in private law and is particularly interested in contract law, with a special focus on consumer law in the European market. What is unusual about her research is that she studies the law not only as a self-contained system but also takes an interdisciplinary approach by viewing it as part of market regulation and judicial policymaking. She explores how consumer law can facilitate relationships between companies and consumers in response to general trends in digitalisation and sustainability. Mak also examines lawmaking processes in which private parties such as online platforms develop their own regulations in the form of contracts and codes of conduct. Who makes the rules in that case, and how can such arrangements align with national or EU law, and above all with consumers themselves? Mak has written authoritative monographs and articles on this subject.
Professor of Theoretical High-Energy Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam
Sera Markoff is a global authority on black holes and was a member of the team that produced the first image of a black hole.She studies how dense objects such as black holes trap and channel matter into new forms, for example magnetic fields that fling powerful jets of particles into space. Her work on the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way led to new insights, for example about the impact of a black hole on the galaxy that surrounds it. These findings also made it possible to test Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity in new ways. Markoff's proposal that jets launched by black holes could also give rise to X-rays and high-energy particles was not taken seriously at first but is now widely accepted. She excels in outreach activities, in which she seeks to engage the public, especially girls and minorities, in beta research, including a learning module for children from migrant backgrounds highlighting science in the medieval Islamic world.
Professor of Mathematics at Delft University of Technology
Mathematician Jan van Neerven has made fundamental contributions to functional analysis and its applications, in particular the theory of stochastic partial differential equations. Such equations describe systems subject to random processes and are used in physics, mechanical engineering, biology, climate science and economics. Van Neerven developed a popular open-source online course on the subject and has written several standard works on his field. He is an excellent teacher and communicator, who also features in the general press.
Professor of History of the Humanities at Leiden University
Herman Paul's research lies at the interface of history, philosophy and scholarly ethics. With a background in the philosophy of history, he authored a major work on Hayden White and developed a conceptual framework for exploring how people relate to their past. He also wrote articles on 'historians’ virtues' and 'scholarly personae' that have been widely supported by peers worldwide. Paul is making productive use of these concepts in his current research on the history of the humanities. Although methods and techniques often vary from one discipline or time period to the next, research on the attributes of good scholars reveals both cross-fertilisation between disciplines and historical continuities.
Professor of Old Testament and Ancient Judaism at the University of Groningen
Mladen Popović enjoys a worldwide reputation as an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in desert caves near Qumran, Israel, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. These ancient manuscripts contain passages from the Bible we know today. Popović works with other researchers on combining handwriting analysis, artificial intelligence and scientific methods such as carbon-14 dating to determine, with previously unattainable precision, the dates of the manuscripts and even to detect differences between the individual authors. Using these techniques, he has managed to situate Qumran’s pre-Christian, Jewish community within the literary and philosophical cultures of the Hellenistic world and the Roman Near East. His approach has led to a paradigm shift in palaeography, Biblical scholarship and the history of Judaism, and may also be useful in other fields of historical science.
Professor of Organic Chemistry at Radboud University Nijmegen
Chemist Floris Rutjes specialises in the synthesis of organic molecules. He has developed new, efficient and sustainable synthesis methods by using and combining new catalysts and enzymes. Thanks to these methods, for example, the production of complex drugs can be cleaner, more efficient and less expensive. Synthesis often proceeds in stages, with the products needing to be separated and purified between stages. Rutjes was also among the first to work on developing micro-reactors, i.e. tiny chemical reaction vessels that combine the various stages into a single system. Rutjes holds more than 25 patents and is a founding partner in four companies.
Professor of Philosophy, Digitalisation and Society at Radboud University Nijmegen
Tamar Sharon is a philosopher and trailblazer in research on the ethical implications of digitalisation, which she examines within the framework of sociological and economic issues. Her research focus is the destabilising effect of digital technology on fundamental values, and how such disruption can be remedied. Her research project focusing on the ‘Googlization of health’ has raised awareness worldwide of the growing role of tech companies in health, healthcare and medical research. Sharon is a member of numerous advisory councils. In that capacity, she advises the European Commission on issues in which ethical, social and fundamental rights intersect with new technologies and science.
Professor of Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry at Radboud University Nijmegen and professor of Marine Biogeochemistry at Utrecht University
Caroline Slomp studies the biogeochemistry and microbiology in marine ecosystems and the cycles of elements that are important for life in aquatic ecosystems, including carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and trace metals. Her research combines field work at sea, laboratory work, and computer simulations. She has broken new ground in her research on biogeochemical processes in oxygen-deficient marine environments such as the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and Lake Grevelingen. For example, rotting organic matter produces the powerful greenhouse gas methane. Slomp is studying how methane is also removed by microbes. Methane that escapes to the atmosphere plays a major role in climate change, which in turn affects the oceans. Research such as Slomp's is important in that it can help us protect or restore marine ecosystems and understand and manage climate change.
Professor of Quantum Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology
Lieven Vandersypen has achieved several breakthroughs in his work in quantum computing. A quantum computer can perform certain calculations much faster than any ordinary computer. Vandersypen demonstrated that quantum computing is more than just a theory but can be applied in the real world, in molecules. In his experiment, he used Shor’s algorithm to break down the number 15 into the factors 3 and 5 using nuclear spins in molecules. While this approach is not scalable to more complex systems, scalability is possible with other types of quantum bits or qubits, the smallest data increments of quantum computers (similar to bits in an ordinary computer that store a value of either 1 or 0). Vandersypen has developed several scalable quantum bits that have the potential to yield a working quantum computer. Vandersypen is the Director of Research at QuTech, a research institute that he co-founded.
Professor of Sociology at the University of Groningen with a special interest in Social Development
René Veenstra has pioneered the study of prosocial and antisocial behaviour and focuses in particular on the role of social networks and norms. He developed an innovative perspective on bullying that views this behaviour not as an isolated problem of individuals but as a dynamic that emerges in social networks in which everyone can play a role. He also showed that children who bully others are not simply maladjusted but are often acting strategically to gain status and affection. This reframing has led to a new approach to anti-bullying that focuses on changing the prevailing social norms rather than punishing the bullies. Veenstra was involved in introducing and evaluating an effective anti-bullying programme (KiVa) in the Netherlands and played a vital role in developing longitudinal studies on adolescent social development. He devotes enormous energy to sharing his knowledge of social networks and the mechanisms of bullying with teachers, parents, children and a wider audience. His research has made a significant contribution to promoting positive social interactions and has enormous social relevance.
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Berend Smit has developed novel molecular simulation techniques for key chemical processes involving nanoporous materials. Understanding and simulating nanoporous materials requires a knowledge of the absorption and transport properties of the molecules that make up such materials. It had proved difficult if not impossible to calculate these properties until Smit developed an entirely novel set of simulation methods. His research has improved our understanding of nonporous materials and made their effective design possible. His findings are of relevance in such applications as carbon capture and other chemical technologies of vital importance to the climate.