Education and academic degrees

• 1984: PhD, Utrecht University (with distinction)
• 1980: Diplom-Sozialwissenschaftler (MPhil), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (with distinction)

Academic positions

• 2020-present: Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Sociology, Department of Sociology / ICS, Utrecht University
• 1996-2020: Professor of Theoretical Sociology (Chair), Department of Sociology / ICS, Utrecht University
• 1995-1996: Professor of Sociology (Chair), Institute of Social Sciences, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• 1993-2003: Principal Investigator (with Jeroen Weesie) of the PIONIER-Program 'The Management of Matches' of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
• 1988-1995: Associate Professor, Department of Sociology / ICS, Utrecht University
• 1984-1988: Assistant Professor, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

Visiting appointments; invitations and positions declined (selection)

• 2020-2022: Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow, European University Institute, Florence
• 2018: Invited Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
• 2013: Visiting Professor, Hong Kong University
• 2010-2017: Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
• 2007, 2011, 2019: Visiting Professor for a lecture series in Taiwan (National Chengchi University, National Taiwan University, National Tsing Hua University, Tunghai University, National Dong Hwa University, Academia Sinica) – 2007; for a workshop at National Chengchi University for PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty from various universities and Academia Sinica – 2011; for a lecture series at National Chengchi University and Academia Sinica – 2019
• 2005: Offer of a professorship (Chair) in sociology, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Cologne (chair held previously by René König); declined
• 2001-2002: Fellow-in-Residence, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS), Wassenaar, Netherlands, for the academic year 2001/2002
• 1998: Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
• 1992: Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
• 1990: Visiting Research Associate, Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Honors and awards, indications of recognition (selection)

• 2020: Festschrift (‘Liber Amicorum’): Buskens, Vincent, Rense Corten, and Chris Snijders (eds.) (2020) Advances in the Sociology of Trust and Cooperation: Theory, Experiments, and Field Studies, Berlin: De Gruyter. Link to publication.
• 2020: Honorary Medal ('Erepenning') Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University, for service to the Faculty
• 2009: Royal decoration Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, for scholarly achievements
• 2007: Elected Member of the German National Academy of Sciences – Leopoldina and Member of the Section on Economics and Empirical Social Science
• 2003: James S. Coleman Award of the Rationality and Society Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA)
• 2000-present: Fellow, European Academy of Sociology (President 2008-2011)

Academic service (selection)

At Utrecht University

• 2012-2017: Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University
• 2010-2012: Vice-Dean of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Graduate School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University
• 1996-2011: Member (1996-2011) of the National Board of the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS); Chairman of the National Board of the ICS (2001-2003; 2007-2009); Scientific Director of ICS Utrecht (1997-2011); Founding Director of the research master's program 'Sociology and Social Research', Utrecht University (2003-2011); Head and Research Director of the Division Cultural Anthropology and Sociology, Utrecht University (2005-2010); Acting Chair of the Department of Methods and Statistics, Utrecht University (2009)

Other academic service

• 2022-2024: Deputy Editor, Sociological Science
• 2021-present: Editorial Board, book series 'Social Network Mechanisms', Oxford University Press
• 2020-2025: Member of the Advisory Committee of the Institute of European and American Studies (IEAS), Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
• 2017-present: Member, Scientific Advisory Board of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald, Germany
• 2013-2015: Member, Arbitration Committee (Comité d’arbitrage, CAR), University of Toulouse, Program of the Initiative for Excellence for universities in France, by appointment of the Commissariat General à l’Investissement and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research
• 2009-2013: Member of the International Scholarly Advisory Committee of the Institute for Empirical Social Science (IESSR), Xi’an Jiatong University (XJTU), China
• 2009-2017: Member, Supervisory Board of the National Initiative Brain and Cognition (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, NWO)
• 2001-2007 and 2013-2019: Beirat, Zeitschrift für Soziologie
• 1992-1995: International Editor, Contemporary Sociology
• 1990-1992: International Consulting Editor, American Journal of Sociology
• 1986-present: Editorial Board, 'Scientia Nova' R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich

(Updated January 2, 2024)