24 januari 2012

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Science and Arts have awarded the Hendrik Casimir-Karl Ziegler Research Grants for 2012 to Hein van den Berg and Alfred Zerres. Both academies make an annual grant available to a young postdoc researcher.

The grant covers a one-year stay as a visiting researcher at a university or research institution in the other country. The awards ceremony will take place on 12 March 2012 in Amsterdam.

Dr Hein van den Berg (born 1980) works at VU University Amsterdam, where he obtained his PhD (cum laude) last year. His dissertation concerned the views on science held by the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant and the important role that German philosopher Christian Wolff, his contemporary, played in shaping those views. Van den Berg analysed the way in which Kant moulds his vision of science in critical dialogue with Wolff. The grant will enable Van den Berg to continue examining Wolff’s influence on eighteenth-century philosophical attitudes toward science at TU Dortmund University.

Dr Alfred Zerres (born 1982) obtained his PhD (summa cum laude) in 2011 at the University of Cologne and now works as a postdoc researcher at the University of Münster. His research focuses on teams of negotiators in a complex environment. In order to achieve their individual goals, they must first negotiate an agreement that is beneficial for all those concerned, including their opponents. The grant will allow Zerres to continue studying the leadership styles that figure in such situations as a visiting researcher at the University of Amsterdam.

The research grants

The Casimir-Ziegler grants are named after the first president of the Royal Netherlands Academy, Prof. Hendrik Casimir, and the first president of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy, Prof. Karl Ziegler. The two academies award annual grants to a young postdoc, one from the Netherlands and one from North Rhine-Westphalia. The grants (EUR 50,000 maximum) are awarded alternately to researchers working in the humanities and social sciences and the natural and life sciences.

Note for editors

You are cordially invited to attend the awards ceremony for the Hendrik Casimir-Karl Ziegler Research Grants. The awards ceremony will take place on 12 March 2012 at the Trippenhuis Building in Amsterdam. Please RSVP.

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