Adrianus Willem "Aad" van der Vaart (born 12 July 1959)[1] is a Dutch professor of Stochastics at the Delft Institute of Applied Mathematics at Delft University of Technology.
Aad van der Vaart | |
---|---|
Born | |
Education | Leiden University |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Leiden University Delft University of Technology |
Doctoral advisor | Willem van Zwet |
Van der Vaart was born in Vlaardingen. He earned his PhD at Leiden University in 1987 with a thesis titled: "Statistical estimation in large parameter spaces" under the supervision of Willem van Zwet.[1] He became a professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 1997.[2] He was appointed as professor of Stochastics at Leiden University in 2012.[1] In 2021 he moved to the Technical University of Delft.[3]
Van der Vaart was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.[4] In 2010 he was an Invited Speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, India.[5] He was the recipient of a European Research Council Advanced Grant in 2012.[6] In 2015 he was one of four winners of the Dutch Spinoza Prize and received a 2.5 million euro grant.[7] He was awarded the prize for his research on mathematical models that help track genes for cancer research.[8] On being awarded the prize Van der Vaart stated that 2.5 million euro was too much, claiming he could have 35 postdoctoral and Ph.D. students work with the grant.[9]
In June 2019 van der Vaart was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.[2]