Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study

The idea for NIAS was initiated by Dutch linguist E.M. Uhlenbeck in the late 1960s. It was inspired on the concept of the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton and Stanford.[1][2] The institute was founded with the support of all Dutch universities, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in 1970 and welcomed their first fellows in 1971 on the NIAS Campus in Wassenaar. Since 1988 it has operated under the direction and auspices of the KNAW.

From 1995 until 2002 Henk Wesseling has been Rector of the Institute. He was succeeded by Wim Blockmans in 2002. From 2010 to 2013 the rector was Professor Aafke Hulk.[3] Paul Emmelkamp was rector from 2013 to 2016 and implemented plans to move NIAS to Amsterdam. As of 15 August 2016, the institute is located in the Jorishof wing of the Oost-Indisch Huis in Amsterdam. Theo Mulder was interim rector in 2017. In 2018 Jan Willem Duyvendak became rector.[4]

Each year NIAS welcomes around fifty fellows who stay at the institute for five to ten months. Half of the fellows are Dutch, the other half foreign. Fellows are prominent researchers and senior scholars with a PhD and who have made an important contribution in their fields. Applications for most fellowships at NIAS are open to qualified candidates. All fellowships are awarded by the scholarship committee. In addition to regular fellowships, NIAS also hosts some special co-sponsored fellowship programmes, some of which are by invitation only. NIAS also hosts theme groups, which bring together scholars of different backgrounds with specific expertise to work together on a daily basis.

Fellows include and have included: Svetlana Alpers, David E. Apter, Tito Boeri, Gerrit Broekstra, Jaap R. Bruijn, Arif Dirlik, Edgar L. Feige, Lewis Goldberg, Richard Goldstone, Bernd Heine, Martin Hellwig, Ernst Homburg, Henkjan Honing, Fred Inglis, Lisa Jardine, Bruce Kapferer, Ronald Kaplan, David Mitchell, Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Frits van Oostrom, Benjamin Radcliff, Bruce Russett, Hein Schreuder, Alex Verrijn Stuart, Henk Wesseling, Robert S. Wistrich, John Woods, Nasr Abu Zayd, and Gerard de Zeeuw.

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