Miscellaneous

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  Robert Passmann selected to assess government policy as part of the V-100

  Every year, the Dutch government selects a hundred citizens to take a critical look at the annual reports of various ministries. This event is called the V-100. This year, a hundred young scientists were selected for the V-100; Robert Passmann was one of them.

  For more information, see https://www.uva.nl/en/shared-content/faculteiten/en/faculteit-der-natuurwetenschappen-wiskunde-en-informatica/news/2022/05/robert-passmann-selected-to-assess-government-policy-as-part-of-the-v-100.html or contact Robert Passman at r.passmann at uva.nl.
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  Talk That Science podcast on Matching Mechanisms

  The podcast 'Talk That Science' hosted by (graduate) students from the Master of Logic has brought out an episode on Matching Mechanisms with Daniela Loustalot Knapp, a recent graduate from the Master of Logic.

  Matching is the abstraction of a problem that arises in many real-world situations and consists of making pairs of individuals from two groups that have preferences over the other group. Examples include organ donation programs, house allocations and matching kids to schools. In this episode, we discuss how different algorithms (or mechanisms) have different normative properties. This means that choosing and designing matching algorithms is not just a mathematical problem. Talking about matching means talking about how to divide limited goods or places as fairly as possible. Furthermore, Daniela recently wrote a thesis on justifying matching algorithms. The idea is to provide non-experts with a step-by-step explanation of why the computed assignment is a good compromise between all the agents’ preferences, grounded in a set of principles that are appealing to them. This work is in line with an upcoming trend in (computational) social choice, called explainibility in social choice. We touch upon this in the last part of the episode.

  For more information, see https://linktr.ee/talkthatscience or contact Nicolien Janssens at nicolien.j at gmail.com.
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  Sonja Smets appointed member of KNAW

  We are very happy to announce that Sonja Smets has been selected as a new member by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). A total of 22 new members will join this year. The new Academy members will be inducted on Monday, 12 September.

  For more information, see https://www.uva.nl/en/content/news/news/2022/05/four-uva-professors-appointed-members-of-knaw.html or contact Sonja Smets at s.j.l.smets at uva.nl.
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  Book "World of Patterns: A Global History of Knowledge" by Rens Bod is now open access

  Rens Bod's monograph "World of Patterns: A Global History of Knowledge" (JHUP, 2022) is now open access on Project Muse.

  From the blurb:
  This insightful survey is the closest thing we have to a history of knowledge without borders. — Lorraine Daston
  This book is even more ambitious and imaginative than Bod's last one. — Chad Wellmon
  Bod offers a much needed new narrative challenging traditional Western-centric views. — Jürgen Renn

  For more information, see https://muse.jhu.edu/book/98273 or contact Rens Bod at rens.bod at gmail.com.