Prof.dr. Frank den Hollander

Frank den Hollander received a PhD in Mathematical Physics from Leiden 

University in 1985. He subsequently held positions in the mathematics 

departments of the universities of Delft, Utrecht, Nijmegen and Eindhoven. 

During the period 2000-2005 he was scientific director of EURANDOM

in Eindhoven. In 2005 he returned to Leiden, where he currently is professor 

of Probability Theory. He is (co-)author of 3 monographs and 150 research 

papers, has supervised 10 graduate students and 30 postdocs, has served 

on many national and international scientific advisory boards, and is 

member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2011 he was awarded 

an ERC Advanced Grant.

The research of Frank den Hollander focuses on systems consisting of a large

number of random components that interact with each other locally yet exhibit

a global dependence, resulting in phase transitions and associated critical

behavior. Typically, the components of these systems are subject to a simple

microscopic dynamics. The challenge lies in understanding the complex 

macroscopic phenomena that arise from this dynamics. Systems of interest 

include polymer chains, interacting particle systems, porous media, random 

processes in random media, and complex networks.