 | Thisbiography of a living personrelies too much onreferences toprimary sources. Please help by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately, especially if potentiallylibelous or harmful. Find sources: "Robbert Dijkgraaf" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Robbert Dijkgraaf | |
|---|---|
 Dijkgraaf in 2022 | |
| Minister of Education, Culture and Science | |
| In office 10 January 2022 – 2 July 2024 | |
| Prime Minister | Mark Rutte |
| Preceded by | Ingrid van Engelshoven |
| Succeeded by | Eppo Bruins |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robertus Henricus Dijkgraaf (1960-01-24)24 January 1960 (age 65) Ridderkerk, Netherlands |
| Citizenship | Dutch |
| Political party | Democrats 66 |
| Website | Minister of Education, Culture and Science |
| Alma mater | Utrecht University |
| Known for | String theory |
| Awards | Spinoza Prize (2003) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics,mathematical physics |
| Institutions | Institute for Advanced Study University of Amsterdam |
| Thesis | A geometrical approach to two-dimensional Conformal Field Theory (1989) |
| Doctoral advisor | Gerard 't Hooft |
| Notable students | Lotte Hollands |
Robertus Henricus "Robbert"Dijkgraaf,HonFRSE (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈrɔbərdˈdɛikxraːf]; born 24 January 1960) is a Dutchtheoretical physicist,mathematician andstring theorist and former politician. He served as theMinister of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands from 2022 until 2024.[1] From July 2012 until his inauguration as a minister, he had been the director and Leon Levy professor at theInstitute for Advanced Study inPrinceton, New Jersey,[2][3] and atenured professor at theUniversity of Amsterdam. As of January 2025, Robbert is the president-elect of theInternational Science Council.
Robertus Henricus Dijkgraaf was born on 24 January 1960 inRidderkerk,Netherlands.[4] Dijkgraaf attended theErasmiaans Gymnasium inRotterdam,Netherlands.[4]
He started his education inphysics atUtrecht University in 1978.[citation needed] After completing hiscandidate's degree (equivalent toBSc degree) in 1982, he briefly turned away from physics to pursue a painting education at theGerrit Rietveld Academie.[5] In 1984, he returned to Utrecht University and obtained anMSc degree intheoretical physics in 1986. He then went on to performing doctoral research under supervision of future Nobel laureateGerard 't Hooft.[4] He studied together with the twinsErik andHerman Verlinde.[4] 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 hisPhD degreecum laude in 1989.[citation needed] His thesis was titledA Geometrical Approach to Two Dimensional Conformal Field Theory.[6][non-primary source needed]
For a few years he worked as apostdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study, working alongsideEdward Witten.[4]
In 1992, he was appointed professor ofmathematical physics at theUniversity of Amsterdam,[4] a chair he held until 2004, when he was appointed distinguished professor at the same university.[7]
From 2008 to 2012 he was president of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was elected as one of the two co-chairs of theInterAcademy Council for the period 2009 to 2013.
Starting in 2012, Dijkgraaf became the director of theInstitute for Advanced Study, an independent academic institution located in the town of Princeton, New Jersey.[8] On that date, he stepped down from his position as president of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He has served on numerous boards including at theTeylers Museum and theNEMO Science Museum.[4]
He regularly appears on Dutch television and has a monthly column in the Dutch newspaperNRC Handelsblad.
Starting on 10 January 2022, Dijkgraaf served as the Minister of Education in the Dutch government. He introduced the Balanced Internationalisation Act in theHouse 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.[9] Dijkgraaf's term as minister ended on 2 July 2024, when theSchoof cabinet was sworn in.[10]
In 1998 Dijkgraaf was an Invited Speaker at theInternational Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin.[13]
In 2003, Dijkgraaf was awarded theSpinoza Prize.[14] 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 theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2003[15][16] and of theRoyal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities.
On 30 May 2012, he was elected an Honorary Member of both theRoyal Netherlands Chemical Society and theNetherlands' Physical Society.[17] On 5 June 2012, Dijkgraaf was appointed aKnight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.[18] In 2012, he became a Fellow of theAmerican Mathematical Society.[19]
He was elected anHonorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (HonFRSE) in the disciplines of informatics, mathematics and statistics in 2013.[20][21] That same year, he was elected as Member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[22]
He received honorary doctorates from theVrije Universiteit Brussel andLeiden University in 2019.[23] 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.[24]
Dijkgraaf's research focuses onstring theory and the interface ofmathematics and physics in general.[2] He is best known for his work ontopological string theory andmatrix models, and his name has been given to the Dijkgraaf-Witten invariants and theWitten-Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde formula.
Dijkgraaf is married to the authorPia de Jong [nl] and has three children.[25] Their daughter Charlotte was born with a rare type ofLeukemia and was the subject of book written by her mother Pia de Jong,Saving Charlotte: A Mother and the Power of Intuition.[25]
 |
| Year | Body | Party | Pos. | Votes | Result | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party seats | Individual | |||||||
| 2023 | House of Representatives | Democrats 66 | 76[a] | 3,247 | 9 | Lost | [26] | |
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:
{{cite book}}:|journal= ignored (help)
 | ||
