Wim van Saarloos Vice-President KNAW and professor at Leiden University
Wim van Saarloos will become Vice-President of KNAW with effect from 1 September 2016. He will also take up the post of Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Faculty of Science at Leiden University with effect from 1 January 2017. He will then relinquish his position on the Board of Governors.
Pioneering research
Wim van Saarloos has conducted ground-breaking research in theoretical physics, for example on the instability of wave fronts and granular materials. He has received national and international recognition for his scientific work.
Theoretical physics
Wim van Saarloos (born in 1955) studied Technical Physics at Delft University of Technology and received his PhD at Leiden University in 1982. He worked for AT&T Bell Laboratories in the USA until 1991. From 1991 to 2009, he was Professor of Theoretical Physics at Leiden University. In 1997, he became director of the university’s Lorentz Centre, a position he held until 2009. In 2010, Van Saarloos was appointed director of the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). He has been helping to shape the NWO’s internal reorganisation since 1 June 2015 as Transition Director.