Blackboard in Robbert Dijkgraaf's office

Robbert Dijkgraaf

Robbert Dijkgraaf, served as Director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study from 2012–22. He was sworn-in as Minister of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands by King Willem-Alexander on January 10, 2022.

Robbert Dijkgraaf
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A prominent mathematical physicist, Dijkgraaf is an impassioned and eloquent advocate for pure scientific inquiry and the vital importance of encouraging creativity, imagination, and “out of the box” thinking. He offers a truly international perspective on science and policy having served as President (2014–17) of the InterAcademy Partnership, a consortium of more than 130 of the world’s national science academies, and Co-Chair (2009–17) of the InterAcademy Council, the global alliance of science academies advising the United Nations, the World Bank, and other international organizations. 

Considered the voice of science in his native Netherlands, where he served as President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences from 2008–12, Dijkgraaf is a best-selling author of books for a general audience, appears frequently on television—including annual live events that attract more than a million viewers—and writes monthly for the Netherlands’ top newspaper, NRC Handelsblad. A trained visual artist, a skilled moderator, and a dynamic spokesperson, Dijkgraaf is equally comfortable describing the wonders of nature and the connections between humanities and science as he is articulating issues of societal import. 

Book covers of English and Japanese editions of The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge
English and Japanese editions of The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge

Dijkgraaf is the author of The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge, published in 2017 by Princeton University Press, in which he and IAS founding Director Abraham Flexner articulate how essential basic research and original thinking are to innovation and societal progress, a belief that has informed the mission of the Institute for nearly ninety years.

As a scientist, Dijkgraaf has made significant contributions to string theory. His research focuses on the interface between mathematics and particle physics. In addition to finding surprising and deep connections between matrix models, topological string theory, and supersymmetric quantum field theory, Dijkgraaf has developed precise formulas for the counting of bound states that explain the entropy of certain black holes. For his contributions to science, Dijkgraaf was awarded the Spinoza Prize, the highest scientific award in the Netherlands, in 2003. He was named a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2012. Dijkgraaf has been conferred honorary doctorates from Leiden University, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and Radboud University Nijmegen and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

News and Engagements

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2021 National Math Festival

Is there a structure even more fundamental than space and time? Watch the talk given by Robbert Dijkgraaf, which discusses the mathematics of black holes, including new mathematical ideas about quantum geometry, and the end of space and time.

Science—The Endless Frontier, and the Next 75 Years in Science

What is required for science to continue to advance human understanding and spark discoveries that benefit the world? Robbert Dijkgraaf joins experts in science policy and public engagement to discuss  "Science—The Endless Frontier," a 1945 blueprint for U.S. scientific research in the post-World War II era that empowered government support for innovation and basic research at the nation’s universities and policies that ultimately drove U.S. prosperity, health, and national security.

Scholar Spotlight: Robbert Dijkgraaf

Join Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, as he opens the jewel box of scholarship at the Institute to explore what drives its talented members. Learn why free-floating, open-ended research is more important than ever as the world seeks new solutions and breakthrough ideas.

Robbert Dijkgraaf: Opening Doors to the Unknown

Alan Alda, host of the new weekly podcast Science Clear+Vivid, welcomed IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf as his first featured guest. The episode, “Opening Doors to the Unknown,” provides a glimpse of the Institute for Advanced...

The Two Forms of Mathematical Beauty

“Trying to appreciate mathematics without understanding its inner workings is like reading a description of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony instead of hearing it.” Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, on the differences between generic and exceptional beauty, and why one type of beauty proves more useful in describing the universe.

IAS Turns 90

We celebrate our 90th year with a special message from Director Robbert Dijkgraaf, IAS scholars past and present, and other members of our community. Thank you to our scholars and supporters for joining us in our mission to push knowledge forward...

Freeman Dyson Remembered

Robbert Dijkgraaf, IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor, remembers Freeman J. Dyson, the legendary physicist, writer, and fearless intellectual explorer who served on the Faculty in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for over 65 years. “As an eternal graduate student, a ‘rebel’ in his own words, Dyson was unafraid to question everything and everybody," writes Dijkgraaf in the PNAS. “… Perhaps he understood better than most that progress stems from disagreement more than agreement.”

Covid-19, Science and Society, with Robbert Dijkgraaf

Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute for Advanced Study, sat down virtually with Joanne Lipman, IAS’s Peretsman Scully Distinguished Journalism Fellow, to discuss the coronavirus epidemic, its impact on IAS, and the elevated role of science in society.

IAS Articles and Talks

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Videos from “The Universe Speaks in Numbers”

On May 29, 2019, the Institute for Advanced Study hosted a celebration of The Universe Speaks in Numbers by frequent Director's Visitor Graham Farmelo. The public event, which was held on the centenntial of the 1919 eclipse that provided the first experimental verification of Einstein's theory of relativity, brought together some of the world's foremost science communicators for an afternoon of talks discussing the close relationship between mathematics and physics.

A Mathematical Rosetta Stone

Writing for NRC Handelsblad, Robbert Dijkgraaf, IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor, likens IAS Professor and Abel Prize Laureate Robert Langlands’s program, “a deep connection between two completely different parts of mathematics: on the one hand, numbers and their relations, on the other hand, geometrical patterns and their symmetries,” to a mathematical Rosetta Stone.

The Most Successful Route Often Begins with a Short Step to the Side

“It is indeed an endless cycle of imagination and concentration, of divergence and convergence, of playing and thinking that deter­mines the rhythm of science and scholarship,” writes Robbert Dijkgraaf on the occasion of becoming the Institute’s ninth Director and first Leon Levy Professor. “The Institute is devoted to creating and sup­porting these experiences.”

Quanta Columns

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Robbert Dijkgraaf on the Subtle Art of the Mathematical Conjecture

"In a perverse way, the refutation of a great conjecture can be even better news than its success, since the failure makes clear that our imagined map of the mathematical world is seriously wrong. Defeat can be productive, the reverse of a Pyrrhic victory." In a column for Quanta Magazine, Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, covers how conjectures are proven, what makes a particular one great, and the role conjecture plays in the advancement of mathematics.

Quantum Questions Inspire New Math

Mathematics might be more of an environmental science than we realize. Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, explores the possibility of developing a new realm of mathematics in order to fully understand the quantum world. 

Prior Engagements

Institute Scholars Give Talks at Strings 2019

The Strings 2019 conference held July 9–13 in Brussels, Belgium, featured talks with Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor of the Institute; School of Natural Sciences Professors Juan Maldacena, Edward Witten, Nima Arkani-Hamed, and Nathan Seiberg; and IAS scholars past and present. 

The Black Hole Is the Atom of the Twenty-First Century

“From the perspective of gravity, [a black hole] is the simplest object we know of, no more than a hole in space. At the same time, according to quantum theory, it is the most complex object, the most compact way to store matter and information.” Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, discusses the paradoxical nature of black holes and their role in twenty-first-century physics.

“Einstein’s Quantum Riddle” Airs on PBS

Scientists are working to decipher and harness the power of quantum mechanics, but the strange nature of entanglement and other quantum phenomena continues to confound researchers, posing new and mystifying questions. On January 9, 2019, PBS aired “Einstein’s Quantum Riddle,” now available online, featuring Institute Director and Leon Levy Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf, who provides audiences with a deeper understanding of nature’s quantum language. 

Big Ideas with Little Kids

In a video produced for Inverse, IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor Robbert Dijkgraaf sits down with a group of seven-year-olds to answer the question “Why is the sky blue?” Through a series of simple experiments, Dijkgraaf and the “class” explore light and color to arrive at an answer.

Science Lives: Robbert Dijkgraaf

What drew Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor, to the world of mathematical physics? He explains that it was the fundamental fact that all the structure we see around us — all the natural beauty, order, and disorder — can be explained by mathematical equations. “I got this feeling that deep mathematical facts must also express something deep about nature,” Dijkgraaf tells the Simons Foundation.

Spark of Science: Robbert Dijkgraaf

“The basic element of science is not the knowledge per se, but the method, the romantic feeling that there’s this vast ocean of knowledge to be explored,” says Robbert Dijkgraaf, Director and Leon Levy Professor. Dijkgraaf reflects on his early encounters with science in his childhood attic in the Netherlands for an animated piece by Nautilus Magazine.

For a complete list of former Institute Directors, click here.