2025-05-20 –, Plenary room
At the SURF Research Day Katrien will be talking about her scientific research during 'Operation Night Watch', but with a clear focus on collaboration.
In her role, she needs to make sure that scientists and people from humanities and art are able to talk to each other and work together. People in science and art conservation work in completely different domains, so this requires the best processes and communication skills.
Dr Katrien Keune is professor by special appointment of Molecular Spectroscopy at the Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Keune is Head of Science at the Rijksmuseum and is responsible for the scientific research during 'Operation Night Watch'. As a professor, Keune will focus primarily on the application of molecular spectroscopy for the study of historic paints and their degradation.
Katrien Keune is one of the Netherlands' leading researchers at the intersection of art history and the natural sciences. Ever since her PhD research she has been using her chemical expertise to preserve cultural heritage and to enrich and improve art historical interpretation. Her focus is on complex processes in paint. As a professor, Keune hopes to bring the still young field of research into the chemical aspects of paintings and painted objects to maturity, connecting fundamental insights with application-oriented research.
Katrien Keune studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). She did her PhD research at the AMOLF institute in Amsterdam leading to her doctorate at the UvA in 2005. She was a postdoc researcher at AMOLF, the National Gallery in London and the Cultural Heritage Agency in Amsterdam. She worked as a researcher at TU Delft and at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the UvA. In 2015, she joined the Rijksmuseum where she became Head of Science in 2019. Since 2018, Keune has held a part-time appointment as associate professor at the UvA.