Guido Bacciagaluppi (philosophy and history of physics) has accepted a position of Associate Professor (‘Universitair Hoofddocent’) in the Foundations of the Natural Sciences at Utrecht University, effectively succeeding Dennis Dieks who retired. Bacciagaluppi will start his new position very soon, on 1 September 2015. He will be based in the Faculty of Science and will be affiliated with the Descartes Centre (http://www.uu.nl/en/descartes-centre). His teaching will mainly be for the English-language Masters in History and Philosophy of Science (http://www.uu.nl/masters/en/history-and-philosophy-science).
He told me that he is very much looking forward to continuing the strong Utrecht tradition in foundations of physics. Indeed: after the moves of Jos Uffink to Minnesota, Thomas Müller to Konstanz, and Jeroen van Dongen to Amsterdam, and the retirement of Dennis Dieks, this is an excellent and most welcome reversal of a trend that has plagued Utrecht for a while and will make sure that Utrecht maintains its strength! Bacciagaluppi will be helped by Dieks, who continues his research activities, van Dongen, who has kept a part-time position at Utrecht, and Fred Muller, who visits Utrecht usually once a week.
And together with some hires elsewhere (some of which I hope to soon be able to announce, some I already have announced, e.g. right below), marks a significant contribution to the health of the field in Europe.
