Prof. dr. Bernard de Wit, together with his group of postdocs and PhD students, has moved from Utrecht University to Nikhef. Per 1 March 2012, his group joined the Nikhef theory group.
In 2010, Prof. de Wit received a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant for his proposal entitled ‘Supersymmetry: a window to non-perturbative physics’. He furthermore holds a ‘FOM projectruimte’ grant, awarded in 2009, on ‘Statistical versus thermodynamic black hole entropy’.
Bernard de Wit has always had a strong link with Nikhef. He became Nikhef staff member in 1978, and led the theory group from 1981 until 1984, when he was appointed professor of theoretical physics at Utrecht University. From 1990 until 1993 he was chair of the Nikhef governing board and from 1994 until 2000 he was the Dutch scientific delegate in the CERN council. From 1999 until 2006 he was also a member of the FOM executive board.
The postdocs in his group are dr. Nabamita Banerjee (Veni laureate), dr. Rajesh Gupta, dr. Sameer Murthy and dr. Bindusar Sahoo; the PhD students are Ivano Lodato and Valentin Reys.
Bernard de Wit will keep an affiliation with Utrecht University.