CURRICULUM VITAE - Pierre van Baal
Last updated: August 2013
Academic degrees and honors received
Kandidaatsexamen (equivalent to Bachelor) in Physics, (cum
laude) June 27, 1977 and Mathematics, (cum laude) March 13, 1978,
Utrecht University.
Doctoraalexamen (equivalent to Master or Diplom) in Theoretical
Physics, (cum laude) September 8, 1980, Utrecht University.
Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics,
(cum laude) July 4, 1984, thesis advisor Prof. G. `t Hooft, Utrecht University.
"Giorgio Chigo" scholarship at the International School of
Subnuclear Physics, Erice, August 3-14, 1982.
Royal Dutch Acadamy of Sciences (KNAW) fellowship award,
September 1989.
Previous positions
From September 2, 1984 to August 31, 1987 I was a Research Associate
at the ITP of Stony Brook and in the Fall of 1985 I became in addition
a Fellow in the Stony Brook joint Math/Phys programme, which combined
the research position at the ITP with a part-time lecturing position
in the Mathematics Department.
From September 1, 1987 till August 31, 1989 I was a Fellow
at the Theory Group of CERN.
From September 1, 1989 I have been appointed as a so-called
KNAW-fellow by the Royal Academy of Sciences for a period of five
years, at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Utrecht.
At December 1, 1992 I accepted a full professorship in Field Theory
and Particle Physics at the Instituut-Lorentz for Theoretical
Physics of the University of Leiden.
I had a stroke (bleeding in the head) on the evening of July 31, 2005.
As a consequence of this I have accepted that since December 1, 2007 I
am demoted to 20% and April 1, 2010 to 10% of a professorship. I could still
teach (in a modified format), but since October 2008 I can not do it anymore.
I can give seminars (twice as slow), but doing research (something new) is
too difficult.
Teaching experience
From fall 1979 to 1984, several recitation classes on quantum
mechanics, electromagnetism and general relativity at a level between
undergraduate and graduate were given in Utrecht.
At Stony Brook, in the spring of 1986, I taught an advanced topics course
in differential geometry entitled ``Complex Structures in Gauge Theories'', for
both mathematics and physics graduate students, covering the ADHM instanton
construction, the Nahm transformation and Donaldson's results on instanton
moduli spaces. In the fall of 1986 I taught calculus for several variables
to undergraduates.
Back in Utrecht I gave recitation classes on field theory and general
relatvity and taught field theory.
From 1989 many students (12) wrote their master
thesis under my guidance. Six PhD-students finshed their thesis with me:
Bas van den Heuvel in September 1996 (now at KPN/TNO research), Jeroen Snippe
in February 1997 (now at Shell), Thomas Kraan in March 2000 (first at Philips,
now at TMC/TNO), Arjan Keurentjes (co-promotor Jan de Boer) in June 2000 (was
postdoc in Brussels, now teacher), Dániel Nógrádi in June 2005
(now Marie Curie fellow in Budapest and mid 2011 promoted to tenured Assistant
Professor), and Mark de Kok (second promotor Jan-Willem van Holten and
co-promotor Falk Bruckmann) in June 2008 (first at McKinsey & Company, now at
Elsevier). I encourage PhD-students working under my guidance towards a
thesis - each to their own ability - to be independent and have
publications for which I am not a co-author.
Organizational activitities
In January 1991 I organized a two-week winter school for beginning Ph.D.
students on high energy physics topics, with participation from Holland,
Belgium and Germany (20 students). Together with Jan-Willem van Holten and Bert
Schellekens of NIKHEF I also organised the same school in January 1996, resp.
2004.
At the joint Lepton-Photon-High Energy Physics conference (EPS), LPHEP'91,
which was held in Geneva from July 25th till August 1st 1991, I organized the
parallel session entitled ``Field Theory''. I served on the program committee
for the "Rochester" conference
ICHEP 2002, Amsterdam, 24-31 July 2002. August 2003 I was elected member
of The International Light
Cone Advisory Committee for 3 years.
Together with Jan Smit from Amsterdam, the annual Lattice Field Theory
conference, Lattice '92, was organized in Amsterdam, 15-19 September 1992.
I have been in the international advisory committees of the lattice meetings
of 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000,
2002, 2003 and
2004.
Together with Peter Orland and Rob Pisarski I was involved in organizing
a RIKEN-BNL Research Center Workshop on
Gauge-invariant variables
in gauge theories, 25-29 May, 1999.
From September 1993 till August 2000 I have been running the theory
seminars and in particular the
colloquium Ehrenfestii at Leiden.
From January 1998 till March 2008 I served as associate (advisory) editor
for Nuclear Physics B.
From January 1999 till December 2001 I served as chairman of the
Theoretical High Energy Physics FOM working group (FOM werkgemeenschap Hth).
Outreach activities
Building and maintaining Cosmic Ray Detectors within the national
project HiSPARC (High-School Project
for Astrophysics Research with Cosmics) for the
Leiden region (Jan-Willem van Holten has taken this over)
Regular guest lectures at high-schools
on special relativity (momentarily not given)
Reviews:
I have given major reviews at the annual lattice field theory conferences of
1988 (Fermilab, USA, in collaboration with A.S.
Kronfeld), of 1990 (Tallahassee, USA) and of
1997 (Edinburgh, UK).
Research Grants:
Since arriving in Leiden I have been awarded twice a grant for postdoc and
visitor positions in QCD and a grant for a four year PhD position in
Mathematical Physics, all from the Dutch funding agency
FOM
/ NWO, which also
provides a rolling grant for a PhD position and occasionally for a postdoc
position. I have received grants from
NCF /
NWO for use of the Cray at
the national supercomputer facility on two different projects (600 CPU hours,
respectively over 3 and 2 year). Twice I formed a node in a successful
application for INTAS grants from the European Community. A substantial
NATO grant for running the
Advanced Study Institute in Cambridge
was secured. Chris Ford (from 1 July 2001) and David Adams (from 1
September 2002) were awarded a 2-year
Marie-Curie Fellowship, based in Leiden.