TU Delft has appointed Joris Dik as Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor. These professorships are early promotions of young, outstanding researchers to the position of professor, enabling them to develop their scientific careers to the fullest extent. Dik’s focus is on materials relating to cultural heritage.

Dik

Joris Dik (35) has been working in the faculty of 3ME (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) at TU Delft since 2003, lately as associate professor. His research area is ‘Art and Archaeology’, with the focus on materials relating to cultural heritage, particularly the origins and conservation of these, and the use of new methods of measurement.

Van Gogh

In recent years, Dik has been at the centre of much excitement not only in science but also in the general media. The best known example was when he revealed the portrait of a female beneath a painting by Vincent van Gogh in 2008. He is currently working on the application of new visualisation techniques in studies of 17th-century painting. Dik studied Art History at the University of Amsterdam (1997) and obtained his PhD there in 2003 in Chemistry. Prior to that he was associated with the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles.