Hanna Tolsma and Sofia Ranchordás appointed as professors via Aletta Jacobs Chairs

The Board of the University of Groningen has appointed Hanna Tolsma and Sofia Ranchordás as professors at the Faculty of Law. Both appointments have been made in the context of the Aletta Jacobs incentive fund, used to set up 15 chairs exclusively for female professors.

Hanna Tolsma

Previous to the appointment, Prof. Hanna Tolsma was assistant professor in the Department of Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Public Administration. Within the Department, she works together with colleagues on research and teaching in the field of administrative law and environmental law: a dynamic field with a considerable legal and practical significance. In the coming years, the achievement of climate targets and the necessary energy transition will be featuring high on the political agenda, resulting in new and innovative regulations such as the Climate Act and the Environment and Planning Act.

Important societal themes within the domain of environmental law that require a careful review of general administrative tenets include the distribution of cost and benefits in projects for renewable energy and socially-effective legal protection.

‘In close cooperation with my colleagues, I am pleased to contribute to the development of the legal expertise required to solve societal issues. As Professor of Decision-making and Legal Protection in Environmental Law, I will mainly be focusing on the legal aspects of the decision-making process (participation), the extent to which the balancing of interests affects decision-making and the access to and role of judges’.

Sofia Ranchordás

Prof. Sofia Ranchordás has been appointed to Professor of European and Comparative Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her research is aimed at public law and digital technology from an interdisciplinary perspective, including regulations and governance, e-commerce and digital platforms (the sharing economy, P2P, online assessment systems), mobility, the digital government and digital exclusion. Her research interests include the study of data-driven regulations, the impact of Big Tech on fundamental rights, experimental legislation and innovation policy. She has published a number of articles and books on these topics and is a frequent speaker at international conferences. She is also a visiting professor at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome.

She previously held academic posts at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, Tilburg University and Leiden University. Prof. Sofia Ranchordas has received both national and international scholarships such as the Niels Stensen Fellowship and awards from the Knight Foundation, NWO Smart Governance and KNAW. She is editor-in-chief for the Review of European Administrative Law and co-founder of the European Law & Tech Network. She has also advised the Dutch government and the European Commission on various matters relating to regulation for new technological developments.

‘As Professor of European and Comparative Public Law, I will mainly be focusing on digital exclusion and the impact of digitization of government bodies on the position of vulnerable citizens in the coming years’.

Aletta Jacobs incentive fund

During the award ceremony of the 2020 Aletta Jacobs awards on Friday 6 March, Rector Magnificus Cisca Wijmenga announced that the University of Groningen had created an incentive fund for the appointment of 15 new chairs , exclusively for female scientists. The chairs are named after the figurehead of the UG: Dr Aletta Jacobs. The 15 Aletta Jacobs Chairs are being distributed across all 11 faculties.

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This article was published by the Faculty of Law.

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