Balthassar Jozef Paul "Bas" van Bavel (born 24 June 1964) is a Dutch historian. He has held the chair of Transitions of Economy and Society at Utrecht University since 2011, and has been professor of Economic and Social History since 2007. His research has mostly focused on pre-industrial Northwestern Europe. He was one of the winners of the 2019 Spinoza Prize, the highest award in Dutch science.
Van Bavel was born on 24 June 1964 in Breda. [1] [2] He obtained an MA in history at Utrecht University in 1988, and continued at the university as a post-graduate, gaining his PhD in 1993. [3] From 1993 to 1995 Van Bavel was a university lecturer at Utrecht University and the University of Amsterdam. He then worked as a research fellow at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences until 1998. In 1999 he returned to the University of Amsterdam as postdoctoral researcher funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Between 2001 and 2008 he led a research project on 'The organisation of markets in late medieval Holland', and between 2007 and 2012 he led a project on 'Economic growth and stagnation in the pre-industrial era: Iraq, Italy and the Low Countries, 600-1700', both at Utrecht University and funded by the NWO. [3] He was appointed as professor of Economic and Social History of the Middle Ages by Utrecht University in 2007. Furthermore, in 2007 he became the academic coordinator for the Utrecht University focus area “Origins and Impacts of Institutions”, which developed into the Utrecht University strategic theme Institutions for Open Societies in 2012, for which he became the programme director. Between 2011 and 2014 he served as head of the section Economic and Social History of the Department of History. In 2014 he was appointed as professor Transitions of Economy and Society and started directing a research team for the project 'Coordinating for life. Success and failure of Western European societies in coping with rural hazards and disasters, 1300–1800'. [4]
Van Bavel was active for football club NAC Breda from 2002 onwards. Between April 2010 and April 2011 van Bavel was its board chairman. [5] [6] [7]
The majority of van Bavel's research has focused on pre-industrial Northwestern Europe especially on the divergent development of societies and the influence of institutions on this process. In more recent research he has also included other parts of Europe and the Middle East, while also including more recent history. [8]
Van Bavel has argued that gross domestic product is a subjective manner of representing economic growth and strength, and is not an objective analysis. He also criticizes using it, as it only shows a partial view of the quality of life experienced. [9] He has argued for the encompassing of social factors - such as equity and welfare, and the resilience to shocks and disasters - and ecological factors - such as sustainable use of resources. [8]
In an article published in Past & Present in 2009, van Bavel and Oscar Gelderblom disagreed with British historian Simon Schama on the origins of historic Dutch cleanliness. While Schama argued that it was founded in Calvinism and patriotism, van Bavel and Gelderblom argued that it originated for economic reasons, hygiene being necessary for the production of cheese and butter. [10]
In 2014 van Bavel contributed to a report on economic disparity published by the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy. [11] He called the increased disparity in personal capital between 2008 and 2013 "quite shocking" (the capital of the wealthiest 1% had increased from about the same as the least owning 20%, to around 25%). [12]
In 2001 van Bavel was awarded a VIDI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for the research project 'The organisation of markets in late medieval Holland'. [3] In 2006 van Bavel won a VICI grant from the NWO for the research project 'Economic Growth and Stagnation in the Pre-Industrial Era: Iraq, Italy and the Low Countries, 600-1700'. [2] In 2013 van Bavel was awarded a European Research Council Advanced grant for the research project 'Coordinating for life. Success and failure of Western European societies in coping with rural hazards and disasters, 1300–1800'. [13] [14]
Van Bavel was elected a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. [15] The Academy praised his research for providing a new perspective on the economic history of the Middle Ages. [15] He was elected a member of the Academia Europaea in 2016. [16]
In 2019, Van Bavel was named one of the four laureates of the Spinoza Prize. [17] The awarding institution, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, praised Van Bavel for: "providing an entirely new vision on the role of the market economy in our society." [17]
Frits van Oostrom is University Professor for the Humanities at Utrecht University. In 1999 he was a visiting Professor at Harvard for the Erasmus Chair. From September 2004 to June 2005, he was a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). He was awarded the Spinozapremie in 1995. In May 2005 he became president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for a three-year period. He had been member of the same institution since 1994.
Frederik Herman Henri (Frits) Kortlandt is a Dutch former professor of descriptive and comparative linguistics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He writes on Baltic and Slavic languages, the Indo-European languages in general, and Proto-Indo-European, though he has also published studies of languages in other language families. He has also studied ways to associate language families into super-groups such as controversial Indo-Uralic.
The Spinoza Prize is an annual award of 2.5 million euro, to be spent on new research given by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The award is the highest scientific award in the Netherlands. It is named after the philosopher Baruch de Spinoza.
Edward Peter Jacobus (Ed) van den Heuvel is a Dutch astronomer and emeritus professor at the Astronomical Institute Anton Pannekoek of the University of Amsterdam.
Arij Lans Bovenberg is a Dutch economist, and Professor of Economics at the Tilburg University and Erasmus University, known mainly due to his contribution to the Dutch debate on population ageing, pension reforms and public finances. Lans Bovenberg was awarded the Spinoza Prize in 2003.
Izak (Ieke) Moerdijk is a Dutch mathematician, currently working at Utrecht University, who in 2012 won the Spinoza prize.
Piet Gros is a Dutch chemist and professor biomacromolecular crystallography at Utrecht University. In 2010 he received the NWO Spinoza Prize for the elucidation of the three-dimensional structure of the C3 protein, which plays a central role in the complement system and contributes to innate immunity.
The Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research is a research institute at Utrecht University. The Bijvoet Centre performs research on the relation between the structure and function of biomolecules, including proteins and lipids, which play a role in biological processes such as regulation, interaction and recognition. The Bijvoet Centre houses advanced infrastructures for the analysis of proteins and other biomolecules using NMR, X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and mass spectrometry. The institute is named after famous Dutch chemist Johannes Martin Bijvoet, who worked at Utrecht University.
Birgit Meyer is a German professor of religious studies at Utrecht University.
Tjitske Nienke"Cisca"Wijmenga is a Dutch professor of Human Genetics at the University of Groningen and the University Medical Center Groningen. She has been Rector Magnificus of the University since September 2019.
Bert Marc Weckhuysen FRSC is a professor of inorganic chemistry and catalysis at Utrecht University, originally from Belgian descent. Weckhuysen is best known for his developments in operando (micro)spectroscopy; imaging catalysis at macro, meso and micro scales, from the reactor down to interactions between single atoms and molecules. He was a winner of the 2013 Spinoza Prize, and was knighted in the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 2015.
Mike Jetten is a Dutch professor of Microbiology at the Radboud University Nijmegen. He was a winner of the 2012 Spinoza Prize.
Michel D. Ferrari is a Swiss neurologist and professor of Neurology at Leiden University and Leiden University Medical Center. He was a winner of the 2009 Spinoza Prize. He is considered to be the foremost migraine expert of the Netherlands, as well as one of the six top scientist in the field worldwide.
Marten Scheffer is a Dutch ecologist, mathematical biologist and professor of Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management at Wageningen University and Research Centre. He was a winner of the 2009 Spinoza Prize. His research focuses on complex systems and their adaptability.
Marjo S. van der Knaap is a Dutch professor of pediatric neurology at VU University Amsterdam and the VU University Medical Center. She was a winner of the 2008 Spinoza Prize. Her research focuses on white matter disorders.
Josina Maria "Jozien" Bensing is a Dutch clinical psychologist. Bensing was director of the Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek van de Gezondheidszorg (NIVEL) between 1985 and 2008. Since 1993 she has been a professor of clinical and healthcare psychology at Utrecht University. Bensing was a winner of the 2006 Spinoza Prize.
René Bernards is a Dutch cancer researcher. He is professor of molecular carcinogenesis at Utrecht University and head of the section of molecular carcinogenesis at the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis. Bernards is a winner of the 2005 Spinoza Prize.
Jan Luiten van Zanden is a Dutch economic historian and professor of Global Economic History at Utrecht University. He is a widely acknowledged specialist in Dutch, European and Global Economic History.
Marileen Dogterom is a Dutch biophysicist and professor at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology. She published in Science, Cell, and Nature and is notable for her research of the cell cytoskeleton. For this research, she was awarded the 2018 Spinoza Prize.
Louis (Wiep) van Bunge is a Dutch historian of philosophy. He has published mainly on the early Enlightenment in the Netherlands, on Spinoza and on his influence on other thinkers.
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