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Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers receives prestigious AERA Distinguished Career Award

Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers, Chair of Educational Research at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, has been awarded the Distinguished Career Award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Division I.

Recognition of an outstanding career

AERA highlighted Prof. Dr. Gijselaers’s pioneering work on problem-based learning, team and organisational learning, and leadership development. Over the course of his career, he has supervised 27 doctoral candidates, many of whom have gone on to influential academic and professional careers worldwide. His scholarly output includes more than 190 peer-reviewed publications, over 50 book chapters and eight international books. Stanford University has also listed him among the top 2% of scientists globally.

I'm grateful for this recognition from both practitioners and scholars—it reflects the ongoing effort to bridge academic research with real-world challenges. More than anything, it encourages to keep advancing the work our department does across research, teaching, and consultancy.

Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers

Inspiring mentor

The jury particularly emphasised his role as a mentor: three of his doctoral students have themselves won AERA Division I’s New Investigator Award. In 2017, he received the prize for Best PhD Supervision Team from the Dutch Association for Educational Research.

His advice to young researchers would be the following:

Look beyond your immediate research group for inspiration—fresh perspectives often come from unexpected places. Progress often begins where disciplinary wisdom ends.

Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers

Service and leadership

Prof. Dr. Gijselaers has been an active member of Division I for over three decades, helping to shape its mission, direction and impact through various roles. He currently serves on the Outstanding Research Publication Award Subcommittee. In addition, he is one of the founding editors of the Springer Book Series Innovation and Change in Professional Education, the founding editor of the Springer Book Series Educational Innovation in Economics and Business, and co-founder of the EDINEB network.

International impact

In addition to his work in Maastricht, Prof. Dr. Gijselaers is Visiting Professor at the University of Bern and co-founder of several international networks and book series that have advanced educational innovation worldwide.

The School of Business and Economics proudly congratulates Prof. Dr. Wim Gijselaers on receiving this distinguished award. His groundbreaking research, dedication to mentoring, and international impact exemplify the highest standards of academic excellence and innovation. We celebrate his outstanding contributions to education and the global scholarly community.

Author: Barbara Timmermans

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