Aad van der Vaart - Biography#

Aad van der Vaart studied mathematics, philosophy and psychology at the University of Leiden, and received a PhD in mathematics from this university in 1987. He held positions or was visiting scholar in Berkeley, College Station-Texas, Harvard, Paris, and Seattle. Following a long connection to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a shorter one to Leiden University, he became a professor at TU Delft in 2021. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Aad van der Vaart's research is in statistics and probability, as mathematical disciplines and in their applications to other sciences, with an emphasis on statistical models with large parameter spaces. He wrote books and lecture notes (on topics such as empirical processes, time series, stochastic integration, option pricing, statistical genetics, statistical learning, Bayesian nonparametrics), as well as research papers. His research has been funded by the Dutch and European Research Councils (Spinoza grant, 2015, ERC Advanced Grant, 2012).

Aad van der Vaart was associate editor of several journals and member or chair of the program committees of several conferences in mathematics and statistics. He gave keynote and invited lectures at many places in the world.

Among former administrative functions are president of the Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research (2003-07), head of the mathematics departments of VU University Amsterdam (2002-06), and Leiden University (2015-19), chair of the European Council of the Bernoulli Society, and president-elect of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis. Aad van der Vaart was a founding member of the masters programs in Stochastics and Financial Mathematics in Amsterdam and Statistics and Data Science in Leiden. He was (co-)advisor to 27 PhD students.

Full CV.