As of 1 September 2022, Prof. Antal van den Bosch has been appointed Professor of Language, Communication and Computation at the Faculty of Humanities of Utrecht University (UU). Van den Bosch is a pioneer in the field of language technology and artificial intelligence. He works on applications in language and communication sciences and, with teams of researchers and programmers, builds software that has broad practical application.

Interdisciplinary bridges

Van den Bosch: “I see many opportunities for building interdisciplinary bridges within the UU. Both via the theoretical route, because computational models of language are increasingly in line with fundamental research. For example, in subjects such as language variation and literacy, but actually everywhere in the Humanities. With the Centre for Digital Humanities, the UU has given this a form that I am glad to contribute to. But I also see many opportunities through the practical angle: there is a growing social need for good support with tasks such as writing, speaking and reading through language and speech technology tools.”

There is a great need for people who have been trained in the overlap area between language, communication and artificial intelligence. Van den Bosch is looking forward to working with Utrecht students in this rapidly growing field.

Strengthening research and education

The Humanities faculty is delighted with the arrival of Van den Bosch. Thomas Vaessens, dean, says: “The arrival of Antal van den Bosch represents an important strengthening of our research and education in a direction that is very promising for fundamental and applied questions. Moreover, we know Antal as a very inspiring team player, from whom we expect new impulses.”

With the appointment, the faculty is committed to strengthening the connection of its own research to interdisciplinary links within the UU such as Institutions for Open Societies, Governing the Digital Society and Applied Data Science.

In Utrecht, Van den Bosch will become Faculty Professor, based in the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication. Until 1 September, Van den Bosch is Extraordinary Professor of Language and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Amsterdam and Director of the Meertens Institute of the KNAW.