VU SCIENTIST HERBERT BOS PROFESSOR IN SYSTEM AND NETWORK SECURITY
‘We are one of the best in the world at building secure computer systems.’ BULLETPROOF COMPUTER
Cybercrime is everywhere. Your bank account is in danger; trains, traffic lights and elevators can be disrupted. The solution is the impossible dream; there is no such thing as a secure computer. This is because today’s systems are simply too complex. Herbert Bos, professional hacker, realized that protecting systems and networks from the inside does not work. Instead, he designed a bulletproof vest.
FOCUS IS BASED ON OUR FOUR THEMES: 1
Human Health and Life Sciences: research and teaching in the area of health and life sciences, from single molecules to the individual, to human society as a whole.
2
Science for Sustainability: Multidisciplinary research and teaching in the area of sustainability, focusing on energy, scarcity, climate and governance.
3
Connected World: research and teaching into the various facets of the ‘network society’: the technology that makes this new societal structure possible, the accompanying structural, social and cultural changes, and the consequences for the world around us.
4
Governance for society: research and teaching in the area of financial, legal and organizational services, with a structural emphasis on corporate social responsibility, behaviour and integrity.
EDUCATING DEDICATED SCIENTISTS
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam educates people to become academics who share their knowledge with the community and with society. The societal relevance of our research is the guiding principle at our university. Our academics look further than the boundaries of their own disciplines. The university’s single-campus design, which includes the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Medical Center, facilitates cooperation between disciplines. This means that a significant proportion of our research activities is carried out in interdisciplinary research institutes on campus.
RESEARCH THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
The world is smaller than ever, but the problems are bigger. These problems often require scientists from different disciplines to cooperate not just at their own universities, but also worldwide.
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM IN THE WORLD
The Netherlands has a binary system of Higher Education with 13 research universities, including Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and 40 universities of applied sciences. The Dutch research universities are all of high academic quality, and consistently ranked among the first 200 universities on international rankings. Only the US and UK feature more research universities in the top 200. In the ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities’ (AR WU) 2015 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam holds position 98. Moreover, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam ranks in the top 50 in the disciplines Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy and in Social Sciences, and in the top 100 in Life and Agriculture Sciences and in Economics. Computer Science belongs to the international top 150.