Sonja Smets' Personal Website

Note: sonja.tiddlyspot.com is no longer updated and has been replaced by this new website hosted by google

Current Affiliation:

- I am a full professor of Logic and Epistemology at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, the University of Amsterdam, holding a double affiliation in the Faculty of Science and in the Faculty of Humanties. I am 50% employed in Science and 50% employed in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy. I joined the ILLC in 2012.


- In Amsterdam I am a member of AI@ILLC and the Amsterdam Dynamics Group which organizes the LIRa seminar series. My previous affiliations and memberships include: a 0.2Fte temporary appointment as Professor II at the Logic and AI Group from january 2019 till january 2022 in the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, at the University of Bergen in Norway. A Rosalind Franklin Fellowship from 2008 till 2012 in both the Department of Theoretical Philosophy in Groningen and in the Multi-agent Systems Group in AI (MAS) at the University of Groningen. A PhD position and three postdoc positions at the Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science (CLWF) in Brussels funded by the Flemish fund for scientific research. An affiliation to the Oxford University Research Group on the Philosophy of Information (IEG), to the former Research Group in Philosophy of Information (GPI) at the University of Hertfordshire, to the former group in Brussels working on the Foundations of Exact Sciences (FUND) and to the Center Leo Apostel (CLEA) in Brussels.


- From June 2016 till July 2021, I have been the scientific director of the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. 

Scientific Prizes, Awards and Recognition:


1.   I am a new corresponding member of the Academie Internationale de Philosophie des Sciences (AIPS), since November 2021


2.  I am a new fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, since December 2021. 


3. I joined the steering committee of Women in Logic (WiL) in November 2021.


4. I joined the steering committee of the DaLí workshops on Dynamic Logic in August 2021


5. I am an elected member of the Academia Europaea,  since 2019.


6.    I am a Member of the Board of Associates (BoA) of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Amsterdam from September 2020 onwards.


7.    I joined the scientific advisory board of the Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences


8.    I am a new Member of the Board of the Beth Foundation, KNAW, The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, since March 2020.


9.    I am a new member of the Council for the Humanities of The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW from May 2020 onwards.


10.    I am a Member of the NIAS-Lorentz Center advisory board from May 2017 onwards and currently also of the NIAS-Lorentz DLF Board.


11.    I am a vice-president of FoLLI, The Association for Logic, Language and Information since 2020 and have been a member of the Management Board of FOLLI from August 2016 onwards.


12.    I was awarded with the Hermann Lotze Prize 2015. The Award Ceremony took place during the 16th Szklarska Poreba workshop 20-23 February 2015 Poland-Czech Republic. The prize was awarded in recognition of my accomplishments in four areas: quantum cognition, quantum foundations, belief revision, and truth tracking. Information at http://www.hlotze.com


13.  I am a Member of the Steering Committee for the Workshop series on Decisions, Games and Logic (DGL) from 2014 onwards.


14. I was Awarded Fellow of the Tsinghua University – University of Amsterdam Joint Research Center for Logic (TALKC) for the period of July 1st 2014 till July 1st 2017.


15. I am a Member of the Scientific Oversight Committee of the Tsinghua-Amsterdam Joint Research Center for Logic from 2014 onwards.


16. I have been awarded with the Birkhoff-Von Neumann Prize 2012. The prize was a warded during the international award ceremony in Cagliari, Italy at the bi-annual conference of the International Quantum Structures Association. The Birkhoff-von Neumann Prize is awarded once every two years during the bi-annual conference of the International Quantum Structures Association. The prize was awarded to me for my "studies on quantum structures and related epistemic semantics which gave rise to a number of remarkable original results. In particular, new light emerged on - a dynamical interpretation of quantum-logical connectives, - a link between quantum logic and quantum computation, - a logical analysis of classical and quantum correlations - an epistemic-logic view of quantum entanglement, - a reduction of the complexity of the Soler-Mayet axiomatization" (see: https://www.vub.be/CLEA/IQSA/birkhoff-von-neumann-prize.html)


17. I am a regular Member of the Scientific Council of the International Quantum Structures Association (last serving in the period 2012-2014).


18. I received a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University of Groningen in 2009.  On May 20th 2009, the new fellows were awarded with an RF medal by Jenifer Glynn (Rosalind Franklin’s sister) in presence of H.R.H Queen Máxima of the Netherlands and the Dutch minister of education, culture and science.


Main Research Grants/Projects:


-I am currently one of the co-PI's of the University wide Research Priority Area on Human(e) AI (2019-2023) at the University of Amsterdam. Our aim is to stimulate new research at the University of Amsterdam on the societal consequences of the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making (ADM) in a wide variety of societal areas.


- In 2009, I received a VIDI award from the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO) to lead a research team on the topic Reasoning about Quantum Interaction (see our vidi-project website) 


- In 2011 I received an ERC starters grant (funded by the European Research Council and the European Community under FP7). The ERC LogiCIC project has been successfully completed in December 2016.


Editorial Board Memberships:

Conferences:


I'm a frequent speaker at international conferences and workshops (with over 150 invited lectures at international conferences, workshops and research seminars and more than 77 contributed workshop presentations), my list of keynote lectures includes a.o. top conferences such as IACAP, EALE, CIE, LOFT, FEW, WOLLIC, AiML, TARK.


I am a PC member of the following conferences and workshops (only a selection listed), 

Click here to see an overview of my PC membership of past conferences and workshops

Past Affiliations:


- Between 2009 and 2012 I was University Lecturer at the University of Groningen where I was granted a prestigious Rosalind Franklin Research Fellowship at both the Faculty of Philosophy (Dept. Theoretical Philosophy) and in Artificial Intelligence within the Faculty of Mathematics & Natural Sciences (Multi-agent Systems Group in AI).


- Between 2001 and 2009 I was a postdoctoral researcher at Flanders' Fund for Scientific Research as well as a part-time lecturer at the Free University of Brussels.


- During the Trinity Term in 2004 I was a visiting scholar at Oxford University, in 2005-2006 at the London School of Economics, in 2008 I visited both the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam, and the School of Informatics at Indiana University. In January 2015 I visited Stanford University and from then onwards I regularly visit also Tsinghua University in Beijing.


- From September till the end of December 2008, I was located at the VLAC, The Flemish Academic Center for Science and the Arts at the Royal Academy in Brussels where I worked on a joint Cluster Project.


- I obtained my Ph.D. at the Free University of Brussels in 2001 under supervision of Prof. Jean Paul van Bendegem and Prof. Diederik Aerts.


Co-Organisation of Eventsts:


Selection of (Co)-Organization of recent Workshops and Special Sessions:

Interviews:

Some Interviews and Conference Pictures