Peter Nijkamp is Professor in Regional and Urban Economics and in Economic Geography at the Free University, Amsterdam. His research interests cover a broad range of topics. In his long research career he has focused in particular on quantitative methods for policy analysis, as well as on the behavioral analysis of economic agents. He has broad expertise in the area of public policy, services planning, infrastructure management and environmental protection. In all these fields he has published hundreds of scientific articles in the international literature and more than over 30 monographs and 50 edited volumes. For several years Peter Nijkamp played a leading role as president of the European Regional Science Association (1979-89) and as president of the Regional Science Association International (1990-92). He founded the Network on European Communications and Transport Activity Research, where he was chairman from 1987 to 2001. He is also past chairman of the board of the research school TRAIL, a collaborative research initiative of Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has been an advisor to several Dutch Ministries, regional and local policy councils, employers’ organizations, private business firms, the Commission of the European Union (EU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the EuropeanConference of Ministers in Transport (ECMT), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Roundtable of Industrialists, ICOMOS, the World Bank and many other private and public institutions. He is a member of approximately 20 editorial boards of academic journals in the field. He is also past chairman of the Dutch Social Science Council and past vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. At present he is president of the governing board of the Netherlands Research Council (NOW). He has been a Guest Professor at several Universities in Europe, Asia and America. He is a doctor “honour causa” at the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels and Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science, the World Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Belgian Academy of Science and Arts. Peter Nijkamp is the 1996 recipient of the prestigious Spinoza Award in the Netherlands.
Academic Profile by Dr Kiriaki Nikolaidou,
University of Athens