Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize

Her publications on women's history, diplomacy and espionage in the early modern period are read by a wide audience and she uses innovative methods for her research. Nadine Akkerman, associate professor of early modern English literature at Leiden University, is receiving the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize 2021 for her work.

Women of various professions – from laundresses to ladies-in-waiting – were successful spies in seventeenth-century England. This is what Nadine Akkerman describes in her book Invisible Agents, the first analysis of the role of female spies in the seventeenth century. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on early modern English literature and history, including women's history.

By using, for instance, 3D scanners to read unopened seventeenth-century letters, she sheds new light on the role of women, diplomacy and espionage in the early modern era. She is also the leading expert on Elizabeth Stuart. According to the jury, her leading research and innovative methods make Nadine Akkerman a deserved winner of the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize 2021 for social sciences and humanities.

About Nadine Akkerman

Dr Nadine Akkerman (born in 1978) is associate professor in English literature and works at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). She studied English language and literature at VU University Amsterdam where she also completed her PhD, graduating cum laude in 2008.

The scientific recognition of her work is evident from the many grants and prizes she has received, including an ERC Consolidator Grant, a NWO Veni and an Ammodo Science Award. She has also been awarded several international fellowships, including a NIAS Fellowship, a fellowship of the Royal Historical Society and recently a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. She is an inspiration to young researchers and a committed member of The Young Academy.

Her new book Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts will be published by Oxford University Press on 25 November 2021.

Raf De Bont, Associate Professor of History at Maastricht University, will this year receive the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize, a sum of 25,000 euros, for his innovative contribution to the history of science and the history of ecology.

In examining the question of how science and modern society have influenced each other, De Bont studies a wide range of subjects, such as the role of the ecological expert in international nature conservation, the relationship between fieldwork and laboratory research, man's changing relationship with ‘wild’ animals, and the representation of science in broader culture.

Raf De Bont is one of the leading historians of his generation. His research offers an original perspective on the changing relationship between man and nature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The jury was particularly impressed by De Bont's examination of the various ways in which people in the West have studied, presented and shaped nature. His approach is innovative in that he connects the history of science, culture and ecology in unexpected ways. For example, he investigates the way in which international networks of scientists were able to claim ‘untamed’ nature in the colonies as their field of study. In other research, he examines how nature conservation organisations long made so-called 'primitive' peoples an object of protection.

In his current Vici-grant research project Moving Animals: A History of Science, Media and Policy in the Twentieth Century, De Bont analyses how people have studied, represented and controlled the dispersal of wild animals around the world (e.g. invasions of ‘exotic’ animals, large-scale trade in zoo animals, and the reintroduction of endangered species).

De Bont is a highly productive researcher whose work has been published by leading international science publishers and in journals in fields as diverse as the history of ecology, the study of science and technology, and intellectual history. His 2015 monograph Stations in the Field: A History of Place-Based Animal Research, 1870-1930 garnered positive reviews in leading history of science journals. He received several awards for his dissertation Darwins kleinkinderen: De evolutietheorie in België, 1865-1945.

Appreciation for his work is also reflected in the research funding that he has been awarded, including two grants under the NWO’s Innovational Research Incentives Scheme: a Vici grant for Moving Animals and a Vidi grant for his research into the role of the ecological expert in international nature conservation since the 1920s. De Bont serves on the editorial boards of prominent journals in his field and is a member of The Young Academy.

Raf De Bont

Raf De Bont (Turnhout, 1977) studied history at the University of Leuven (Belgium) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA). In 2005, he obtained his PhD for his thesis on the reception of evolutionary theory in Belgium. Before accepting a position at Maastricht University in 2011, he was a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Leuven and a visiting fellow at Cambridge University and Imperial College London.

Eveline Crone, Professor of Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology at Leiden University, has been awarded the 2017 Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is receiving the prize, a sum of EUR 25,000, for her entire oeuvre. 

Crone researches the development of the adolescent brain. As one of the first in the world, she has been systematically monitoring adolescents, their lifestyle and the neurological processes in their brains on a long-term basis.

Eveline Crone (born in 1975) discovered that not every part of the human brain develops simultaneously. During puberty, the parts of the brain that experience emotion develop more quickly than those parts that are important for control, which helps to explain unrestrained, high-risk and irresponsible adolescent behaviour. 

Crone’s innovative insights have enabled her to give direction to a totally new field of research. In Leiden, she set up the Brain and Development Research Center that investigates the brain processes of adolescents. For this purpose, she uses combinations of scientific methods, from functional MRI brain scans and heart rate measurements to psychological tests.

Crone’s approach is characterised by her view of adolescence not as a necessary evil, but rather as a useful development phase in which the brain learns to deal with a larger social environment. The insights obtained from the research of Eveline Crone can help to structure education and society more effectively with a view to the possibilities of young people.

About the laureate

Eveline Crone (1975) studied developmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam, where she was also awarded a doctorate. After a two-year research period at the University of California in Davis, she became a researcher at Leiden University, where in 2009 she was appointed Professor of Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology.

She participates in a major national ‘Gravitation programme’ relating to neuroimaging, is a member of the ERC Scientific Council and acts as a figurehead for Brains, Cognition and Behaviour, which is part of the Dutch National Research Agenda.

In 2015, Crone received a VICI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and in 2016 a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council. In 2017, she was presented with the Academy Ammodo Award and received the NWO Spinoza Prize.

Eveline Crone was chair of The Young Academy and is now a member of the Academy and the Academia Europaea.

Carsten de Dreu, professor of Organisational Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, has been awarded the Dr Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences 2015 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). The prize is being awarded for his entire oeuvre. De Dreu’s research interests include conflict and cooperation in groups and creativity and innovation.

Carsten de Dreu (born in 1966) has carried out important studies of cooperation within and between groups, focusing on such topics as conflict and conflict cultures and group decision-making. His research has led to a better understanding of how negotiations between individuals in small groups can result in more creative solutions of greater benefit to all. One significant factor is that people do not operate solely according to the homo economicus model of human behaviour; rather, cooperation and competition between individuals involve a wide range of social dimensions.

The jury further noted that De Dreu also allows for the role played by neurobiological factors, adding considerable depth and precision to our understanding of what determines and changes social behaviour. His work has great practical significance for the composition of teams and for efforts to promote innovation and effective decision-making. His research has also helped dispel common misconceptions, for example that oxytocin functions as a ‘love hormone’.

About the laureate

De Dreu has been a full professor at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Psychology since 1998. From 2015, he has been associated with the Center for Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED) at the same university. This academic year he is taking up a fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) in Wassenaar, where he will continue his recent research on creativity and innovation.

After studying and earning his doctorate in Psychology at the University of Groningen (RUG), De Dreu worked at the university of Louvain-la-Neuve, the RUG and the University of  Amsterdam. He was a visiting lecturer at Yale, Carnegie Mellon University, and the universities of Granada and Leiden. Carsten de Dreu was president of the European Association for Social Psychology from 2008 to 2011, is a member of the Royal Academy, and has received dozens of awards and prizes for his work.

Rien van IJzendoorn, professor of Education and Child Studies at Leiden University, has been awarded the Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences. He is receiving the prize for his entire oeuvre.

Rien van IJzendoorn (born in 1952) studies the influence of parenting on child development. Parents and other educators play a crucial role in the development of children at all ages. Van IJzendoorn and his team have studied children who grow up in extreme circumstances, for example in orphanages. They have gathered compelling evidence that a child’s development depends on its environment. The parents’ job is not finished at conception or birth; children and teens still desperately need their guidance and support. The observational and experimental research conducted by Van IJzendoorn and his team has led to new insights into the complex interaction between genes and the environment. They have direct relevance in such areas as child care and juvenile care.

Van IJzendoorn addresses urgent social issues in his research. His social engagement is obvious from his work on such issues as the impact of adoption, the effect of trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors on their children and grandchildren, the prevalence of child neglect, abuse in juvenile care, and the quality of child care. Van IJzendoorn also always ensures that his research results are available and of practical relevance to politicians, the public and education professionals. For example, he was the co-founder of the Adoption Triad Research Centre (ADOC), a digital research and information centre that studies the effects of adoption and foster care and disseminates the results. His research on the quality of child care and on child abuse led to debates in the Dutch House of Representatives.

About the laureate

Rien van IJzendoorn has made a unique contribution to Dutch and international education research and his work has received praise both in the Netherlands and abroad. He has published more than 280 articles in international journals and there are more than 20,000 citations of his work. His H-index is an impressive 71. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and received a Spinoza Prize in 2004. In 2012, he and a number of other leading Dutch researchers were awarded an NWO Gravitation Award for the Consortium Individual Development, which studies why some children thrive while others do not. Van IJzendoorn received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa in 2008. In 2011, he was also awarded the Aristotle Prize by the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA), as well as the Bowlby-Ainsworth Founder Award for his research on attachment. Rien van IJzendoorn has supervised more than fifty graduate students, eight of whom have since been appointed to professorships.

Patti Valkenburg, professor of Youth and Media at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), will receive the Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences 2011.

Valkenburg has developed her own field of study, namely the use and influence of media on children and young people. She has developed theories to understand, for example, the effects of media on children's imaginations, and devised a model to explain what media preferences children of different ages have. Her ideas have been an important starting point in developing the Kijkwijzer (the classification system for film, programmes and video games in the Netherlands). Her research explores how a child deals with social media, and what influence genetic predisposition and the environment within and outside the family have on this. Valkenburg is one of the leading figures in this field of study: she is the most cited European researcher in her field, has received numerous prizes, and plays an important role in the relevant international organisations.

About the laureate

Prof. Valkenburg (born 1958) began her academic career late on in life – she started studying when she was 30 – but then rapidly scaled the heights of academia. Since obtaining her doctorate in 1995, her research has been continuously funded by the Academy, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and the European Research Council. Valkenburg has been Professor of Youth and Media at the UvA’s department of Communication Science since 1998, and she is the founder and scientific director of the Center for Research on Children, Adolescents and the Media, one of the largest of its kind in the world. Earlier this year she was appointed the first Distinguished Research Professor at the UvA’s Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Valkenburg was also appointed a member of the Academy this year.

2009

D.I. Boomsma, the Netherlands

2007

M.S. Groenhuijsen, the Netherlands

Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Michel Wedel, both Professors of Marketing, were awarded the 2005 Dr Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences.

According to the Academy, Steenkamp and Wedel have put the Netherlands on the map with respect to international, scientifically grounded marketing research. Their work has enhanced the image and status of marketing considerably and brought it into the domain of academia. The jury is awarding the prize to Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Michel Wedel not only to recognise their outstanding achievements as scientists but also to acknowledge the field of marketing as a scientific discipline.

Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Michel Wedel, both Professors of Marketing, were awarded the 2005 Dr Hendrik Muller Prize for Behavioural and Social Sciences.

According to the Academy, Steenkamp and Wedel have put the Netherlands on the map with respect to international, scientifically grounded marketing research. Their work has enhanced the image and status of marketing considerably and brought it into the domain of academia. The jury is awarding the prize to Jan-Benedict Steenkamp and Michel Wedel not only to recognise their outstanding achievements as scientists but also to acknowledge the field of marketing as a scientific discipline.

Peter Hagoort was awarded the 2003 Dr. Hendrik Muller Prize.

According to the Academy, Professor Hagoort (1954), Director of the F.C. Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Nijmegen (which opened last year), plays an important role in a relatively new branch of science. The discipline of cognitive neuroscience emerged with the arrival of such techniques as fMRI, which makes it possible to study 'the brain in action'.

2001

P.T. van der Veer, the Netherlands

1999

P. Rietveld, the Netherlands

1997

W.C. Ultee, the Netherlands

1995

W.H. Buiter, United Kingdom

1993

W.J.M. Levelt, the Netherlands

1991

A. Lijphart, United States