Celebration of a new year and a new faculty

The Faculty of Economics and Business celebrated the opening of the academic year in the Aa-Kerk on Tuesday 4 September. Students, staff, and members of the Faculty and University Board joined the celebration of the beginning of the academic year and a new, merged faculty.
Dean prof. dr. Henk Sol opened the meeting with inspiring words for the faculty and a look into the future.

Dr. Simon Kuipers, President of the Board of the University, reflected on the merger of the faculties and congratulated the Faculty Board with this new start.  

Next in line were two Rosalind Franklin Fellows, Laura Spierdijk and Floor Rink. The Rosalind Franklin programme gives young female scientists the opportunity to develop their own research programme.

Laura Spierdijk spoke about individual decision making. With an econometric model supporting her research she explained why some music artists, without any apparent talent, sell a lot of records. The reason for this phenomenon is the snowball effect: people buy the records because other people do so. Laura concluded that the top 10 percent of the best selling artists have talent, but that the artists below that line sell because consumers behave like a flock of sheep.

Floor Rink elaborated also on decision making, but from a team perspective. Among other things she explained that when a new member is put into a team, he or she will be more accepted if he or she will join the team for a short period. 

Lecturer of the Year
Last to take the floor was student representative Reinier Stomp, who presented the lecturer of the year award to Albert Boonstra.

After this, Dean Sol invited everyone for a drink to conclude the celebration