Prof. Van Dijk is enthusiastic about his new part-time position. “As scientific director of Netspar, I look forward to contributing to the connection between science and practice when it comes to socially relevant themes in the area of pensions, such as sustainability,” he says. Mathijs will remain associated with RSM as a professor.
The RSM professor fills the vacancy that arose after Professor Marike Knoef took office as director in September 2020. Professor Knoef: "We think Mathijs is the ideal candidate for this position. He has a glorious scientific career. That is very valuable for our research proposals for scientific grants. In addition, his experience with other scientific disciplines is relevant for Netspar as a multidisciplinary network. Mathijs can also explain his knowledge well and in an accessible way.”
The Netspar management board also consists of Professor Theo Nijman (research director) and Peter Gaillard (operations director).
About Mathijs van Dijk
Mathijs van Dijk is professor of finance at RSM with a focus on financial markets. He is currently also vice-chairman of RSM’s Finance department. His research focuses mainly on international finance and investments, with a specific focus on sustainability. Prof. Van Dijk previously received a Vidi grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), and was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS). He has published in highly regarded academic journals such as the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Financial Economics. In addition, he has experience in broadly sharing scientific insights, for example in collaboration with the Universiteit van Nederland, TEDx and recently during the PensioenPro conference on climate. Netspar recently awarded Mathijs the short-term project "Do more sustainable companies perform better during the corona crisis?" and the multi-year project "Climate risks in investment portfolios".
