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Robbert Dijkgraaf

President-Elect, International Science Council
Robbert Dijkgraaf
International Science Council
Robbert Dijkgraaf is a mathematical physicist and academic leader who currently is President-Elect of the International Science Council, the most comprehensive organization representing the global science community, and a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Amsterdam.

He recently served as Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands and before that for ten years as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. 

Dijkgraaf’s research focuses on the interface between theoretical physics and mathematics where he contributed to the understanding of string theory, black holes and topological field theories. He is an experienced public policy adviser having served as president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the InterAcademy Partnership, the global alliance of science academies. For his contributions to science, he has received the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands, and has been named a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is also a trained artist, writer, and popular lecturer. He was educated at Utrecht University, working with Nobel Laureate Gerard ’t Hooft.