Diederik Aerts (born April 17, 1953) is a Belgian

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...

, professor at Brussels Free University (

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

- VUB) and founding director of the

Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

(

CLEA Clea Strange () is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by co-plotters Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, Clea first appeared in the Doctor Strange feature in ''Strange Tales'' #126 (November 1964). S ...

). He is best known for his work in

quantum foundations Quantum foundations is a discipline of science that seeks to understand the most counter-intuitive aspects of quantum theory, reformulate it and even propose new generalizations thereof. Contrary to other physical theories, such as general relat ...

and

quantum cognition Quantum cognition is an emerging field which applies the mathematical formalism of quantum theory to model cognitive phenomena such as information processing by the human brain, language, decision making, human memory, concepts and conceptual re ...

Biography

Diederik Aerts was born in

Heist-op-den-Berg Heist-op-den-Berg () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality comprises Heist-op-den-Berg proper (including the hamlets: Heist-Goor, Heist-Station, Zonderschot, Heist-Centrum and Bruggeneinde), the villages of ...

, Belgium, on April 17, 1953. He attended secondary school at 'Koninklijk Atheneum' in

. He received his MSc in

Mathematical Physics Mathematical physics refers to the development of mathematics, mathematical methods for application to problems in physics. The ''Journal of Mathematical Physics'' defines the field as "the application of mathematics to problems in physics and t ...

in 1975 from Brussels Free University. For his doctorate he worked at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...

with

Constantin Piron Constantin Piron (1932, Paris - 9 May 2012, Lausanne) was a Belgian physicist who worked for most of his career in Switzerland. In 1963 Piron earned his doctor of science degree from the University of Lausanne under the direction of Ernst Stuecke ...

on quantum foundations, studying the description of compound quantum entities within the axiomatic approach to quantum physics developed by

Josef-Maria Jauch Josef Maria Jauch (September 20, 1914 in Lucerne – August 30, 1974 in Geneva) was a Swiss/American theoretical physicist, known for his work on quantum electrodynamics and on the foundations of quantum theory, and leader of the "Geneva School" ...

and collaborators. He obtained his PhD in theoretical physics in 1981 from Brussels Free University with Jean Reignier. In 1976 he started working as a researcher for the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (

NFWO The National Fund for Scientific Research (NFSR) (Dutch: ''Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek'' (NFWO), French: ''Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique'' (FNRS)) was once a government institution in Belgium for supporting scient ...

), where in 1985 he became a tenured researcher. In 1995 he became director of the VUB's

(

) and in 2000 he was appointed professor at the VUB. From 1990, he has been a board member of the 'Worldviews group', founded by the late philosopher

Leo Apostel Leo Apostel (Antwerp, 4 September 1925 – Ghent, 10 August 1995) was a Belgian philosopher and professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University. Apostel was an advocate of interdisciplinary research and the bridging of the gap b ...

and from 1997 he has been Editor-in-Chief of the international ISI and

Springer Nature Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...

journal ''

Foundations of Science ''Foundations of Science'' is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal focussing on methodological and philosophical topics concerning the structure and the growth of science. It is the official journal of the Association for Foundations ...

''. He was the scientific and artistic coordinator of the 'Einstein meets Magritte' conference, where some of the world's leading scientists and artists gathered to reflect about science, nature, human action and society. In 2020 he received the Prigogine Award, for his work in the research domain called quantum cognition, where quantum structures are used to model aspects of

human cognition Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of Intellect, intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attentio ...

and decision.

References

Primary

Secondary

External links

Homepage
at Brussels Free University
Homepage of the Worldview Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aerts, Diederik Living people 1953 births Belgian physicists Theoretical physicists People from Heist-op-den-Berg