Prof. Peter van Tienderen has been reappointed dean of the Faculty of Science by the Executive Board of the University of Amsterdam. Van Tienderen's second term will commence on 1 January 2022 and will run for a period of five years.
The decision was taken after consultation with the Faculty Works Council and the Faculty Student Council.
'We are very pleased that Peter van Tienderen is prepared to continue his work as dean for the next five years,' says Geert ten Dam, president of the Executive Board. 'Under his leadership, the Faculty of Science has developed very successfully in recent years. Together with his team, he has succeeded in consolidating the quality and continuity of the education and research, even in this difficult period with the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the Faculty has been able to cope well with the sharp increase in student numbers. In the research arena, the Faculty has entered into further collaborations with a large number of social and industrial partners. This has put Amsterdam Science Park even more firmly on the map. There is a strong focus on co-creation and AI, for example with the arrival of LAB42, and on other in-depth multidisciplinary and, above all, 'green' themes. In addition, Peter pays a great deal of attention to diversity and inclusion, which was expressed in the Faculty's Gender Balance Action Plan and has now been followed up in the Faculty's Diversity and Inclusion Policy Document. We also greatly appreciate his commitment as a national advocate of science and the importance he attaches to scientific outreach as a means of connecting with primary and secondary education.'
About Van Tienderen
Prof. P.H. van Tienderen (1958) has been professor of Experimental Plant Systematics at the UvA since 2001. From 2005 to 2014, he headed the UvA's Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED). He served as vice-dean of the Faculty of Science from 2014 until he was appointed dean in 2017. Van Tienderen holds a number of advisory and management positions outside the UvA. For example, he is a member of the board of the Science & Business Foundation at ASP and a member of the Agriculture subcommittee of COGEM.
In his research, which is both experimental and theoretical, Van Tienderen mainly focuses on the evolution and diversity of plants. Since 2010, he has been the driving force in the Netherlands behind LifeWatch, an umbrella infrastructure for biodiversity and ecosystem data in Europe. Van Tienderen has also continued to teach while serving as dean.
