Four University of Groningen nominees awarded Royal Decorations

On Thursday 26 April, four University of Groningen (UG) nominees received a Royal Decoration. Prof. N. Kalantar-Nayestanaki has been appointed Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion. Prof. G. Wakker, Prof. J. de Ridder and Prof. B.W. Lensink have been appointed Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Nasser Kalantar-Nayestanaki

Professor of Experimental Nuclear Physics Nasser Kalantar-Nayestanaki (Tehran, Iran, 1960) joined the KVI-Center for Advanced Radiation Technology (KVI-CART) at the UG in 1993. He has an impressive track record and has won international acclaim as a pioneering researcher in the field of the forces between nuclear particles. Kalantar-Nayestanaki has made a revolutionary contribution to research into the forces that play a role between very small nuclear particles. He focuses on the differences in behaviour between systems that comprise two and three different tiny particles. Thanks to Kalantar’s research the calculation of the forces in systems that comprise three particles has improved greatly.

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Gerry Wakker

Gerry Wakker (Haarlem, 1958), Professor of Ancient Greek Linguistics and Dean and Chair of the Board of the Faculty of Arts, is a leading researcher, both nationally and internationally, and a unique, skilled and personally involved administrator. Like no other, she shows that she is perfectly at home in both worlds. Since she joined the Board of the Faculty of Arts in 2003 and was appointed Dean in 2009, Wakker has embodied academic leadership: she always shows that she is both an administrator and an academic. Academics who have worked closely with her praise her broad-mindedness, precision and genuine modesty. Her approach has radically changed the way people think about Greek linguistics. Fellow administrators admire the outstanding expertise and commitment with which she has brought about complex change processes.

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Ko de Ridder

Jacobus (Ko) de Ridder (Oostvoorne, 1949 ) was Professor of Public Administration until he retired in 2014. Since then he has been Honorary Professor of Comparative Public Management at the Faculty of Law at the UG. He is a versatile, influential professor who has succeeded in promoting interaction between administrative law and public administration. He was one of the founders of a research group that combined normative legal research with empirical social sciences research. This was unique in the Netherlands. With his academic background in political science and public administration, De Ridder is a pioneer in the field of interdisciplinary research into public administration. He was often one of the first to recognize the importance of a certain theme and publish an influential text on it. Over the years he has made his mark on topical themes such as trust in government and the legitimacy of government action.

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Robert Lensink

Robert Lensink (Tiel, 1962) is Professor of Finance and Financial Markets at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the UG (80%) and Professor of Finance and Development in the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University and Research (20%). He is universally recognized as an eminent researcher, an inspiring mentor and colleague and an impassioned lecturer with a strong preference for and tireless commitment to Africa and the economy of the developing world in general. It is with utter dedication that he devotes his considerable talents to a range of academic projects, partnerships and initiatives. This applies both to the numerous academic publications to his name and to securing external funds for academic research. Recurring themes in his research are the organization and evaluation of microfinance, entrepreneurship, transparency, poverty, costs, income inequality and economic growth.

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