After obtaining his PhD in theoretical physics at Leiden University in 1982,
Wim van Saarloos joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in the USA as a researcher. In 1991 he returned to Leiden University in the Netherlands in 1991. His research as a professor of theoretical physics focused on statistical physics and condensed matter physics. While in Leiden he was also the founder and long-time director of the Lorentz Center (1997-2009), an international workshop center in the sciences. In 2009 he became the director of the national foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) in the Netherlands, which is part of the national funding agency NWO.
On January 1 2017, Wim van Saarloos returned to Leiden University as a professor of physics, combining his position with being vice-president and of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences KNAW. With the president of the academy, he wrote in 2017 an essay “The Dutch Polder Model in science and research”; his talk at IFKAD will be based on this essay. From June 1 2018 till June 2020 he will serve as president of the KNAW.
