Members of the KNAW, who are leading scientists from a wide variety of different disciplines, are chosen based on nominations from colleagues, both in and out of the academy. The KNAW currently has about 600 members. Membership is for life. The total of 16 new Academy members will be installed on 28 September.
Mark Dingemanse, Professor of AI, Language Diversity and Communication Technologies
Mark Dingemanse is a linguist known for his broad, creative and inquisitive approach to his field. That began during his doctoral research, grounded in fieldwork in Ghana on the Siwu language and the understudied lexical class known as ideophones, marked words that depict sensory imagery. He then worked with colleagues on a comparative study of dozens of languages from around the world.
Linguists traditionally study individual sentences, but Dingemanse focuses on conversation, the ‘natural habitat’ of language. In 2015, he and his colleagues won the Ig Nobel Prize for their unexpected discovery that ‘huh?’ may be a universal word. Research into the elementary particles of conversation revealed how small words, interjections, play a major role in the complexity of our language system.
Interaction is also the focus of Dingemanse’s manifesto Beyond Single-Mindedness, a call by researchers active in a wide range of disciplines to study cognition as something that arises through interaction.
Dingemanse's more recent research focuses on the convergence of language and technology in the form of chat apps and AI applications. In the latter case, he advocates adopting a critical and inquisitive approach: ‘Social interaction is too important to be left to the hypemen.’ He has already used his expertise to influence Dutch and European AI policy.
Ronald van Rij, Professor in Experimental Virology, Radboudumc
Blood-feeding mosquitos can transmit extremely harmful viruses, such as zika, chikungunya and dengue. Dengue alone infects hundreds of millions of people every year, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths.
It was long unclear whether the insects themselves have an immune system capable of fighting off viruses. Ronald van Rij discovered that they combat viruses through the RNA interference mechanism, which breaks down the virus’s genetic material. In turn, viruses sabotage the RNA interference mechanism.
His group discovered how this biomolecular arms race has led to fragments of viral RNA being incorporated into the mosquito’s genetic material, precisely in order to better combat the virus. This means that the mosquito’s immune system is capable of adaptation, just like that of humans.
Van Rij is a passionate advocate of pure science, but also recognises the value of practical applications, such as treatments or other means of combating viral diseases. During the covid-19 pandemic, he opened up his lab for the launch of a ‘Covid moonshot’ aimed at discovering antiviral drugs, which in fact yielded a potential treatment.
Michiel Vermeulen, Professor of Molecular Biology
Michiel Vermeulen, who is also senior group leader at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, studies the interactions between DNA, RNA, proteins and other biomolecules to gain a better understanding of how cells function and to identify potential cancer treatments.
It has become clear in recent decades that cells can have more access or less access to DNA, causing genes to be more active or less active and, ultimately, to produce more or fewer proteins. These processes take place within the chromatin, the complex of DNA wrapped around special proteins called histones, which ensures that long, thin DNA molecules fit compactly and in the correct sequence within the cell. Vermeulen has developed several methods to identify these ‘epigenetic’ interactions that are now used in laboratories worldwide.
Although Vermeulen’s research is essentially theoretical, it also yields insights that contribute to the development of new cancer treatments. Clinical trials are currently underway involving drug candidates based in part on his findings.
Last year, Vermeulen, members of his research team and a large contingent from the Oncode Institute took part in the Alpe d’HuZes fund-raising event for cancer research. He also contributed to a popular science book on epigenetics, a subject he spoke about last year at the Lowlands music festival, which has a special area dedicated to research called Lowlands Science.
All KNAW members from Radboud University can be found here.