Afterwards, he became a doctoral researcher at Utrecht University funded by Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie [nl] (Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter, FOM) for four years. In 1995, he obtained his PhD degree in mathematics and physics from Utrecht University with a thesis entitled The magnetic form factor of the neutron.[1]
Career
Bruins later lived in the United States, where he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1995 to 1997. He then returned to the Netherlands, where he was a project coordinator at his former employer FOM between 1997 and 2004, as well as subsequently director of the Leiden Institute of Physics of the Leiden University from 2004 to 2007, before his time as director of the FOM between 2007 and 2015.[1][3]
Politics
Bruins was a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), but switched over to the socially more conservative Christian Union in 2011.[4] Bruins served as editor-in-chief of the magazine of Christian Union's scientific institute.[4]
In the parliamentary election of 2012, Bruins was placed as number six on the Christian Union list but was not elected.[4] On 2 December 2015, he became member of the House of Representatives, when he replaced former party leader Arie Slob who had resigned as a parliamentarian.[5] He was his party's spokesperson for matters including education, media, and aviation.[2] In the parliamentary election of 2021, he was placed seventh on the party list, failing to win re-election. He later became chairperson of the Advisory Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (AWTI).[2] In 2023, following the resignation of then party leader Gert-Jan Segers as a parliamentarian, a seat in Parliament was proposed to Bruins, who declined to return. The seat went to Nico Drost instead.
After the PVV, VVD, NSC, and BBB formed the Schoof cabinet, Bruins was sworn in as Minister of Education, Culture and Science on 2 July 2024, succeeding Robbert Dijkgraaf.[2][6] Bruins serves on behalf of NSC, and he canceled his membership of the Christian Union. Party leader Mirjam Bikker (CU) disapproved of Bruins's nomination.[2][7] The Schoof cabinet's governing agreement prioritized reading, writing, and arithmetic abilities, as well as addressing the teacher shortage.[8] The cabinet proposed to cut the yearly budget for higher education and research by €1 billion, which would be achieved through lowering the amount of international students, increasing tuition for students exceeding the standard duration, and decreasing funding for research. The coalition agreement included a plan to terminate 1,200 recently created academic positions, but this measure was replaced in the budget by the elimination of research grants.[9]
Bruins continued a bill by Dijkgraaf aimed at reducing the number of international students. The bill would limit the proportion of English-taught content to one third within each bachelor's degree program, with the remainder to be taught in Dutch. Exceptions would be made for regional circumstances, labor market needs, international uniqueness, and international positioning. Bruins intended to define the latter two grounds more narrowly than his predecessor.[10][11]
