Dick Frans Swaab (born 17 December 1944) is a Dutch physician and

neurobiologist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist specializing in neuroscience that deals with the anatomy and function of neurons, neural circuits, and glia, and their behavioral, biological, and psychological roles in health and disease. ...

(brain researcher). He is a professor of

neurobiology Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

and was until 2005 Director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research (Nederlands Instituut voor Hersenonderzoek) of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

(Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen).

Life

Swaab graduated at the

Amsterdams Lyceum The Amsterdams Lyceum is a Dutch secondary school combining ''gymnasium (school), gymnasium'' and ''Education in the Netherlands#Vwo, atheneum''. Both school types prepare students to go to university. It was established in 1917. The Amsterdams Ly ...

in 1963. He received his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

at the

in 1968, and his Ph.D. in 1970 with professor J. Ariëns Kappers on a

neuroendocrine Neuroendocrine cells are cells that receive neuronal input (through neurotransmitters released by nerve cells or neurosecretory cells) and, as a consequence of this input, release messenger molecules ( hormones) into the blood. In this way they b ...

thesis, and in 1972 he received his

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

. He was from 1978 the director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research. In 1979 he was appointed professor of

at the University of Amsterdam. In 1985 he founded the Nederlandse Hersenbank—known in English as The Netherlands Brain Bank—to facilitate international research on brain diseases. Swaab is an atheist.

Research

Swaab is best known for his

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and discoveries in the field of

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

, in particular the impact that various

hormonal A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones a ...

and biochemical factors in the

womb The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more fertilized eggs until bi ...

have on

brain development The brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head ( cephalization), usually near organs for special sens ...

. Another area of Swaab's work, which has drawn much attention, is his research on how

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

relates to brain anatomy, as well as research relating to

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

and transsexuality. Through his years of research, Swaab, according to his own words, came to the

deterministic Determinism is the metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping mo ...

and materialistic conclusion that brains are not things we have, but rather brains are what we are: the physical and chemical processes in our brains determine how we react and who we are. Currently, Swaab is most active in the field of depression and

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

research. Swaab's research has on several occasions produced controversy. After conducting research suggesting links between brain anatomy and

, Swaab reports receiving death threats from individuals believing this work was attempting to 'pathologize' homosexuality and treat it as a biological abnormality or disorder. Swaab's view that neither free will nor metaphysical entities such as souls or spirits exist has also caused negative reactions among various religious groups. Swaab consistently defends his studies in the face of such criticism.

Recognition

Swaab has numerous scientific awards and was mentor of 84 Ph.D. students, 16 of whom became full professor. He is editor of several journals about brain research. Swaab has an

H-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 135 as of 2023, having been cited over 34,000 times. He is a member, honorary member, and founder of many scientific and professional associations. He was the second person to be awarded the Emil Kraepelin Guest Professorship at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry,

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, Germany, in 1996, and is a visiting professor in three locations in China, and at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, United States. He also is appointed Chao Kuang Piu Professor at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.-R. China. He has been decorated with the Knight of the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands (, ) is a Dutch honours system, Dutch order of chivalry founded by William I of the Netherlands on 29 September 1815. The Order of the Netherlands Lion wa ...

, a high

order of chivalry An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is a society, fellowship and college of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades ( 1099–1291) and ...

of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands (, ;, , ), commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The re ...

Education

*1963 Final examination

*1968 MD Medicine,

* 1970 Ph.D. Thesis: Factors influencing neurosecretory activity of the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei in rat. A histochemical and cytochemical study. Mentor: Prof. dr. J. Ariëns Kappers * 1972 General physician, University of Amsterdam

Professional career

*Acting director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research, an institute of the

(KNAW) (1975-1978) *Director of the Netherlands Institute for Brain Research (1978-2005) *Professor of

at the medical faculty, University of Amsterdam (1979-2009) * Leader research team neuropsychiatric disorders, Neth. Inst for Neuroscience (1978-now) *Founder and, until 2005, director of the Netherlands Brain Bank (1985-2005)

Workplaces

* Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience * Netherlands Brain Bank * Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry *

* Hangzhou, P.-R. China

Awards and honours

Swaab has received the following awards and honours: * 'Snoo-van 't Hoogerhuijs' prize (together with Dr. W.J. Honnebier) for work in the field of

fetal A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a ...

neuroendocrinology Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...

(1976) * 'Hugo van Poelgeest' prize for the Netherlands Brain Bank as an alternative for animal experiments, June 26 (1990) * Journal of Neural Transmission (36, 195–215, 1975) paper awarded "Citation Classic" status in Current Contents 33, no. 30, p. 16. (1990) * Emil Kraepelin Guest Professorship 1996, Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie,

, Germany (1996) * Royal Honour, “Knight of the

” bestowed by her Royal Highness Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (1998) * Guest Professor of Anhui Medical University,

Hefei Hefei is the Capital city, capital of Anhui, China. A prefecture-level city, it is the political, economic, and cultural center of Anhui. Its population was 9,369,881 as of the 2020 census. Its built-up (or ''metro'') area is made up of four u ...

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

, PR China (1998/now) * Guest Professor of Capital University of Medical Sciences,

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, P.R. China (1999/now) * Federa Prize 2000, Federation of Medical Scientific Societies, November 17, 2000, RAI, Amsterdam, for scientific work in biomedical determinants of Alzheimer's disease (2000) * GIRES (

Gender Identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

Research and Education Society) award 2002 for the article ‘Male-to-Female Transsexuals Have Female

Neuron A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...

Numbers in a

Limbic The limbic system, also known as the paleomammalian cortex, is a set of brain structures located on both sides of the thalamus, immediately beneath the medial temporal lobe of the cerebrum primarily in the forebrain.Schacter, Daniel L. 2012. ''P ...

Nucleus Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom *Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucleu ...

.’ (Kruijver et al., J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metabol. 2034-2041 (2002) * Alzheimer's Association Award: Lifetime Achievement Award in Alzheimer's Disease Research. Received at the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, Sweden, 21 July (2002) * Honorary member of the installation committee of the journal on Gender Identity Disorders, the GID Journal (2003) * Visiting professorship in sleep medicine (Amer.Ass.of Sleep Med.& Pfizer) at Stanford, CA, United States (2005-2006) * Guest professor at the Beijing Institute of Radiation Medicine from 1 October 2005 to 31 December 2008 (2005-2008) * Guest Professor at

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University (ZJU) is a public university, public research university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and D ...

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

(2007) * Academy medal for his role in national and international

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

(fundamental to applied), for his initiative to start the Netherlands Brain Bank, and for his research in Alzheimer's disease (2008) * Honorary member of “Brein in Beeld” (2010) * Chao Kuang Piu Chair of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, P.R. China (2011–17)

Bibliography

Monograph

* Dick Swaab, Ons creatieve brein, 2016. * Dick Swaab, We are our Brains: From the Womb to Alzheimer's, 2014. * Dick Swaab, Wij Zijn Ons Brein: Van Baarmoeder Tot Alzheimer, Publishing Centre, 2010. * Dick Swaab, The Human

Hypothalamus The hypothalamus (: hypothalami; ) is a small part of the vertebrate brain that contains a number of nucleus (neuroanatomy), nuclei with a variety of functions. One of the most important functions is to link the nervous system to the endocrin ...

. Basic and Clinical Aspects. Part I: Nuclei of the Hypothalamus; Part II: Neuropathology of the Hypothalamus and Adjacent Brain Structures. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, approx. 1000 pp, 2003/2004.

Key papers and publications

Swaab has co-written extensively on a number of topics, including sexual differentiation of the brain, Alzheimer's disease,

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

, depression,

eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...

and

metabolism Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the co ...

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

, human postmortem

cell culture Cell culture or tissue culture is the process by which cell (biology), cells are grown under controlled conditions, generally outside of their natural environment. After cells of interest have been Cell isolation, isolated from living tissue, ...

Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that is mostly Genetic disorder#Autosomal dominant, inherited. It typically presents as a triad of progressive psychiatric, cognitive, and ...

and

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

References

External links

Profile Het Brein deel (2/4) Dick Swaab

Zomergasten 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swaab, Dick 1944 births Living people Cognitive neuroscientists Dutch atheists Dutch neuroscientists Dutch science writers Writers from Amsterdam Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Stanford University faculty