Prof. dr. Vincent Icke - He is one of few people in the Netherlands that is not only an exceptional lecturer and researcher, but also one of the most famous Dutch scientists.

At the moment he is an emeritus professor of theoretical astronomy at Leiden University, the institute where he earned his PhD in 1972 with a thesis on the formation of galaxies in clusters. He continued his research for several years at prestigious institutes for astrophysics at Cambridge University and Caltech.

Besides his academic work he is also an artist and he is committed to the popularisation of science with TV performances and books like “Reisbureau Einstein” and “Licht. Tussen waarheid en wetenschap”.,

Prof. dr. Icke will be a speaker of the Physics and Astronomy track.

Dr. Frits Veerman - He is an expert in the field of dynamical systems and as lecturer of several mathematics courses, like an undergraduate course on multivariable calculus and the graduate course “Introduction to Dynamical Systems”, he is a familiar face for mathematics students at Leiden University.

After his PhD in Leiden he worked as a postdoc at the renowned Centre of Mathematical Biology in Oxford. After postdoctoral research in Edinburgh and being a Humboldt Research Fellow in Heidelberg he returned to Leiden, where he is currently an assistant professor.

At the moment he is mainly occupied with research in mathematical biology, an exciting interface of applied analysis and theoretical biology. With his expertise he is a suitable speaker for this event and a great addition to the other ones that we will announce in the coming weeks.

Dr. Frits Veerman will be a speaker of the Mathematics and Computer Science track.

Prof. dr. Henkjan Honing - He is a pioneer in the field of music cognition, an interdisciplinary field of study that looks into the role of perception, emotion, memory and expectation when listening to music. Honing is especially interested in what musicality is and can be; both in humans and animals.

After obtaining his PhD from the City University in London, he started specialising in computational modelling music cognition. He was granted a Distinguished NIAS Lorentz fellowship for his work. In 2014 he became full professor at the Institute of Logic, Language and Computation in Amsterdam. Moreover, he was elected to be a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Beside lots of scientific publications, he has also published several books for the general public. In “Aap slaat maat. Op zoek naar de oorsprong van muzikaliteit bij mens en dier.” he points out surprising insights in the musicality of animals.

Prof. dr. Henkjan Honing will be a speaker of the mathematics and computer science track.

Prof. dr. Ulrike Felt - She has a broad interest in science and society. She played a big role in international research projects, for example being president of European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST, 2017-2021).
Furthermore, she has been a visiting professor at numerous universities among them: ETH Zürich and STS group at Harvard University.

In 1983 she obtained her PhD in theoretical physics from the university of Vienna. She went to work as a member of the interdisciplinary research team at CERN that analysed the societal, political and scientific aspect of this huge European collaboration. In 1988 Ulrike Felt returned to Vienna, to the Helga Nowotny Institute of Philosophy of Science and Science Research. About ten years later she received her habilitation in Sociology of Science.

Prof. dr. Felt is very involved in societal discussion about the role of science and technology in the contemporary world. On top of that, she is active in the field of European and Austrian policy advice.

Prof. dr. Ulrike Felt will be a speaker for both tracks.

Dr. James Grime - He is broadly known for his appearances in the most famous maths Youtube channel, Numberphile.
Dr. Grime is a mathematician with a great passion for maths communication and promotion of mathematics. Therefore he spends most of his time touring the world to give talks or on Youtube reaching millions of people.

James studied mathematics at Lancaster university. After obtaining his PhD from York university, he worked in research in combinatorics and group theory. Then he joined the Millennium Mathematics Project from the University of Cambridge and he ran The Enigma Project on their behalf to bring mathematics to life.

Besides his very successful Numberphile videos with which he reaches millions of people, James also reaches 12,000 people of all ages in the numerous talks he gives.

If you want to know more about James Grime: check out his Youtube channel "singingbanana"; his Numberphile videos; or just google him and enjoy all the other talks that are available.

Dr. James Grime will be a speaker for both tracks.

Sponsors

This beautiful symposium would not be possible without the financial support of the following organisations