Summary

After finalising my PhD thesis on a neutrino scattering experiment at the CERN-SPS

accelerator complex in Geneva, Switzerland, I became a CERN staff fellow to work on

the LEP electron-positron collider experiment Delphi.

Within this collaboration, consisting of more than 500 people, I performed a leading role

in the preparation studies (detector simulations) to determine the sensitivity for various

physics processes.

In addition I was coordinating the development of physics criteria to detect the decay of

a light Higgs particle, as expected from the standard model of particle physics.

With the start of the first data taking, I was given the management of the offline analysis processing.

When I joined the Utrecht University, I introduced a new research line in the field

of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions with the CERN accelerator facilities.

As such, Utrecht was placed on the map with respect to experimental activities at CERN.

Within various international collaborations concerning the heavy-ion research,

of which each consisted of more than 150 physicists, I have played a role as

coordinator of both the design of detection systems (i.e. simulation studies)

and the development of analysis methods.

In addition to this I have devised the necessary software framework.

Within the CERN-LHC Alice collaboration, currently consisting of more than 700 people,

I was one of the founding fathers by leading the simulation efforts for the detector design.

I became also the projectleader of the "Event generators and physics performance" group,

as reflected in the Alice technical proposal (CERN/LHCC 95-71).

In view of this I was a member of the Alice Physics Board and as Utrecht representative I was also

a member of the Alice Collaboration Board, the policy making body of the Alice collaboration.

In 2002 I have taken the initiative, in line with the future research strategy at that time,

to start an activity in the interdisciplinary field between astrophysics and particle physics,

called astroparticle physics.

In collaboration with colleagues from the astrophysics department and the Netherlands Institute

for Space Research (SRON) this resulted in 2003 in a participation within the IceCube project;

the world's largest neutrino telescope at the South Pole.

The IceCube collaboration consists of about 300 people from all over the world.

Within IceCube I acted as the projectleader for the Dutch group and also as member of the IceCube

Collaboration Board, being the panel that coordinates the construction, physics research

and policy of the experiment.

Over the years I have had the supervision of several PhD and undergraduate students and

performed university teaching at all levels, comprising (astro)physics, cosmology, statistics,

computer simulations and data analysis.

To reflect the new astroparticle physics activities in the educational programme, I introduced

in 2004 a completely new course in the Utrecht bachelor curriculum, called "The Microcosmos".

Apart from lectures and exercises on various topics, I have also developed computing facilities

for this course, which enable the students to actively participate in the data analysis of large

international experiments.

With this course I also try to provide bridges between the disciplines of astrophysics, cosmology

and particle physics.

In addition to this I have provided various masterclasses about these subjects at Utrecht.

In 2009 I became a laureate of the prestigeous Odysseus award of the Belgian FWO

for my innovative work in Neutrino Astronomy with the IceCube observatory.

This event and a change in the scientific climate at the Utrecht University made me

decide to move my scientific activities to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium.

At the VUB I am leading a group of scientists in the field of Astroparticle physics within

the Inter-university Institute for High Energies (IIHE).

The research of my group is focused on studies of transient phenomena (e.g. Gamma Ray Bursts

and flares of Active Galactic Nuclei) with the IceCube neutrino observatory.