“What is science?” is the key question that provides the corner stone of science and technology studies (STS), the field that I have increasingly considered my academic home. Being a student of STS, which I got by accident as I considered computer science not being too concerned with the societal issues that motivated my interest in studying, I had terrible difficulties understanding and accepting the social constructivist premises. I was intrigued, but it took quite some time to realize that the radical line of thought does not preempt my ambition to improve society through knowledge. It actually teaches how important it is to be humble and transparent as a knowledge broker. It helps to avoid the pitfalls of becoming a complacent wiseacre. It has guided me in investigations and research projects with a broad societal outreach to insist on uncertainty tolerance, a falsification ambition and triangulation as research principle. Never with the pretention to generate truths but with the ambition to construct sensible and serviceable knowledge that enable responsible acting in a complex world.

However mindboggling in the beginning, the constructivist thesis has given me a rich perspective on science, research, investigation and knowledge for policy. In my farewell lecture, I would like to advance the idea that science is what is called science by society. I will argue that from that perspective the university is just one of the potential homes for those who consider themselves professional scientists. I will also argue that it is necessary for universities to be a node in that network called science, which also requires reaching out to the national societies they are part of, next to being a global community. Based on my experience both within the university and in other nodes and threads of that science network, I will provide some suggestions on how to travel and act in the dynamic interplay in which knowledge for society is both constructed and used.

With over 25 years of a cherished relationship with the university of Maastricht, of which 15 years as a professor, it is time to pass the toga to the next generation. Dropping the title doesn’t change my intrinsic scholarship. It is only means permanently moving to other parts of the science network without holding on to a formal tie with a university. So it is not a farewell, but an invitation to connect in different ways while being convinced that we will manage to do so.  

Note: The lecture will be in Dutch, but assistance will be provided as to enable non-native speakers to join.