SFI External Professor Han van der Maas has been named the next director of the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). Van der Maas, a professor of psychological methods at the University of Amsterdam, has been involved with the IAS since its founding in 2016. His five-year term as director will begin in September.
The IAS aims “to advance cutting-edge interdisciplinary research that addresses complex scientific and societal challenges.” It focuses on four broad research themes: Dynamic Social Systems, Coupled Human and Natural Systems, Health Systems Complexity, and Digital Societies and Infrastructures. Van der Maas has served as a principal investigator and a member of the management team at IAS. Three other SFI External Professors — J. Doyne Farmer, Marten Scheffer, and Stefan Thurner — are among the IAS’s 15 external professors.
Van der Maas, who has been an SFI External Professor since 2022, has worked to develop new approaches to applying complexity theory in the social sciences. Supported by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council, his current research focuses on cascade transitions, where individual transitions set societal transitions in motion, and vice versa. His 2024 monograph, Complex-Systems Research in Psychology, published with the SFI Press, offers a roadmap for psychologists interested in adopting and applying complexity science in their research.
“It is a great privilege to lead this vibrant institute in Amsterdam, and I look forward to strengthening the ties with SFI,” says van der Maas.