Robbert Dijkgraaf

Robertus Henricus ( Robbert ) Dijkgraaf ( born January 24, 1960 in Ridderkerk ) is a Dutch theoretical physicist and string theorist.

Dijkgraaf studied 1978-1982 Physics and Mathematics at the University of Utrecht. After his scientific studies, he moved to study painting at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. In 1989 he received his doctorate with Gerard 't Hooft of Utrecht in theoretical physics. Then he was at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Amsterdam.

Robbert Dijkgraaf is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences ( 2011 and Chairman of the Council ) and the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen. In 1998 he was invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin ( The mathematics of Fivebranes ). In 2000 he gave a plenary lecture at the 3rd European Congress of Mathematicians in 2000 in Barcelona ( The mathematics of M -theory ). He was awarded the Physica Prize of the Dutch Physical Society in 2001 and 2003 he was awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

He is also very active in the scientific community work and among other columnist of NRC Handelsblad and Folia ( a weekly free newspaper of the University of Amsterdam). His doctoral Christoph Schweigert heard.

Dijkgraaf is July 1, 2012 Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 2013 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.