Prof. Mladen Popović reappointed as Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies

We are glad and proud to announce that Prof. Mladen Popović will continue in his position as Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies for another four years. He has been in this position since September 2017, and has been reappointed by the Board of the University for a second period. We are confident that Prof. Popović will lead and guide the Faculty successfully into the future.

Mladen Popović studied at the University of Groningen, KU Leuven, and Yale University. He has conducted archaeological research in Tel Megiddo and Jerusalem. He is the director of the Qumran Institute at the UG, an institute that plays a leading role in studying the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Netherlands. In 2008, Popović was awarded the Keetje Hodshon Prize by the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) for a dissertation that earned him a distinction. At the end of 2009, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) awarded him a Veni grant. Veni grants are intended for young researchers who have recently gained a PhD and have significant and original talent for innovative research.

Popović is known for his research into the Dead Sea Scrolls. In April this year, he published a study, in which he deduced the creators of these scrolls by means of artificial intelligence. On this discovery, he states the following: ‘This is exciting, because it opens up a new window into the ancient past, which gives perspective into the complex connections between the writers of the scrolls. In this research, we found evidence that the two writers of the Isaiah scroll used a similar style, which indicates that they took part in the same writing programme. Our next step is to analyse other scrolls to see whether they perhaps reveal writers with a different educational background.’