‘When I write out calculations, they become part of reality’ Anyone who thought that scientists only concern themselves with formulas is wrong. Professor of physics Robbert Dijkgraaf has always been visually oriented, as he explains in the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. ‘At the art academy, I learned what doing research really is.’ Text: Jim Jansen Photography: Bram Belloni
‘I
have a special bond with the Allard Pierson Museum. This is the museum of the University of Amsterdam, in the most beautiful location in the city. A few years ago, there was a pop-up museum here and, as guest curator, I was allowed to
14 | New Scientist | Leiden2022
set up a chamber of wonders full of scientific objects that stimulate the imagination. That was a boyhood dream come true for someone like me who loves art so much. All my life, I have been visually oriented. I recently found my school drawings again. They looked like the writings of a sixteenthcentury naturalist, with that neat handwriting and those precise drawings. For example, I made portraits of all the felines. Every
line and colour seemed to make sense. I didn’t care that I didn’t understand everything. I just thought it was beautiful. That sense of beauty has remained. When I think about scientific concepts now, I always see them very visually. With abstract concepts, I see three-dimensional figures and beautiful colours, and I get an aesthetic feeling. When I try to understand something, it is important for me to write
