1 maart 2004

On 1 March 2004 the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) announced the names of this year's Academy Professors.

They are Professor J.J. Duistermaat (Utrecht University), Professor E.R. De Kloet (Leiden University), Professor C.A.J.M. Kortmann (University of Nymegen), Professor R.A. Van Santen (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven) and Professor A.S. Tanenbaum (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). As Academy Professors they will be able to devote themselves full-time to innovative research and the supervision of young researchers. Academy Professors are released by their universities from administrative obligations.

Professor J.J. Duistermaat
Professor Duistermaat has been awarded an Academy Professorship for his unique contribution to his discipline, including his work on Fourier integral operators, the wave propagator trace and the behaviour of the cohomology of the symplectic form of the reduced phase space, which led to the now famous Duistermaat-Heckman formula. Professor Duistermaat is acknowledged as one of the world's leading mathematicians in the field of differential equations. Particularly noteworthy is his ability to produce astonishing results in areas of application that extend well beyond his own specialisation. Professor Duistermaat is also an inspiring educator of young people.

Professor E.R. De Kloet
Professor De Kloet has been awarded an Academy Professorship in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of stress biology and, in particular, for his research on the role of cortisol in regulating stress responses in the hippocampus. With his discovery of the roles played by glucocorticoid/mineralocorticoid receptors in controlling the response of the brain to stress, Professor De Kloet has founded a new area of research. He has received worldwide recognition for his scientific achievements and their medical application. His research has led to the development of new concepts for treating diseases caused by the disturbed homeostasis of stress response. Many aspiring researchers have trained in Professor De Kloet's laboratory, and several of them have been appointed full professors.

Professor C.A.J.M. Kortmann
Professor Kortmann is honoured for his extensive, original and useful work in Dutch constitutional law, European public law in general and French public law in particular. In his many books and articles he has combined scholarly research, analytical judgement and clear exposition to generate new and valued thinking in his chosen subject - a fact already generously recognised by the French academic world as well as the Dutch and French states. He is a widely respected throughout Europe as an authority on comparative constitutional law. Many of the young students educated by Professor Kortmann have now reached senior academic positions.

Professor R.A. Van Santen
Professor Van Santen has been awarded an Academy Professorship for his outstanding contribution to the physical chemistry of heterogeneous catalysis. Professor van Santen has addressed this subject in an innovative and most impressive fashion in both his theoretical and experimental studies. His research combines various disciplines - including chemistry, physics, material sciences and chemical engineering - and is highly relevant to basic and applied science in the field of industrial chemistry. Professor Van Santen enjoys worldwide recognition for his work and has received several awards, the most prestigious of which are the Spinoza Prize (Netherlands) and the Alwin Mittasch Medal (Germany). He has educated a large number of scientists. Among them are several talented researchers who have achieved important positions in the field of catalysis.

Professor A.S. Tanenbaum
Professor Tanenbaum has been awarded an Academy Professorship in recognition of his work on computer systems. He introduced the idea of structuring computers into layers at an early stage and described this and other ideas in his groundbreaking books. Read all over the world, they treat a broad variety of subjects in the field of computer science, including architecture, operating systems, networks and distributed systems. Professor Tanenbaum worked on machine independent compilers and developed a highly successful operating system (MINIX) for educational purposes, used in many universities throughout the world. His work on cluster computers led to research on locally and globally distributed operating systems such as Amoeba and Globe. He is considered one of the top educators in his field.

The KNAW funds the salary and a research budget for each Academy Professor (together 200,000 euros). The university in question is required to recruit at least one young talented research leader with the funds made available. In this way, the Academy Professorship Programme helps young researchers advance into supervisory positions.

The Academy Professorship is awarded for a period of five years, with the possibility of extension. The Academy Professorship Programme was set up in 2002; each year four to five Academy Professors will be appointed. Outstanding professors aged between 55 and 60 can be nominated by the governing bodies of their universities. The nominations are evaluated by an international committee chaired by the President of the KNAW.

The five Academy Professors will be officially installed on Monday 26 April 2004. More information on the Academy Professors and the Academy Professors Programme may be found on this website: http://www.knaw.nl/professorship/.