About

Peter Arnold van der Helm

Born (August 12, 1956) and raised in the Dutch village of Nieuwlande (Dr) that was honored,
in 1988, with a monument on Yad Vashem's Avenue of the Righteous Among the Nations,
and in 2004, with the UN-endorsed International Award for Liveable Communities

Professional Education

• 1968--1974: Gymnasium-ß, Menso Alting College, Hoogeveen
• 1974--1981: Applied Mathematics, University of Twente
• 1979: Bachelors degree in Fundamental Mathematics
• 1981: Masters degree in Numerical Mathematics (Cum Laude)
• 1983--1988: Cognitive Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen
• 1988: PhD degree in Social Sciences (Cum Laude)

Research Experience and Positions (for an overview of research topics, see Research)

• 1974--1981: In total, 2 years of research trainings and internships, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente
• 1983--1988: PhD research, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen, in the Social Science spearhead-project Structural Information Theory funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
• 1989--1995: Postdoctoral research, Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI), Radboud University Nijmegen, on two personal grants from the Radboud University Nijmegen
• 1996--2000: Research fellow, NICI, Radboud University Nijmegen, on a personal grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Since 2001: Tenure at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior of the Radboud University Nijmegen

PhD Thesis (defended December 12, 1988)

• Title: Accessibility and Simplicity of Visual Structures
• Contents:
• A mathematical formalization that characterizes visual regularity as being transparent holographic regularity
• A transparallel algorithm that computes guaranteed simplest codes of symbol strings
• Supervisor: Dr. E. L. J. Leeuwenberg (Radboud University Nijmegen)
• Promotors: Prof.dr. A. Thomassen (Radboud University Nijmegen) and Prof.dr. C. Hoede (University of Twente)
  

Key Publications (for a complete list of publications, see Publications)

• van der Helm, P. A., & Leeuwenberg, E. L. J. (1991).
  Accessibility, a criterion for regularity and hierarchy in visual pattern codes.
  Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 35, 151--213.
  Abstract     Full text

• van der Helm, P. A., & Leeuwenberg, E. L. J. (1996).
  Goodness of visual regularities: A nontransformational approach.
  Psychological Review, 103, 429--456.
  Abstract     Full text     Follow-up 1     Follow-up 2

• van der Helm, P. A. (2000).
  Simplicity versus likelihood in visual perception: From surprisals to precisals.
  Psychological Bulletin, 126, 770--800.
  Abstract     Full text     Follow-up

• van der Helm, P. A. (2004).
  Transparallel processing by hyperstrings.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 101 (30), 10862--10867.
  Abstract     Full text     Appendices

Editorship

• van der Helm, P. A., van Lier, R., & Wagemans, J. (Eds.) (2003).
  Visual Gestalt formation.
  Acta Psychologica, 114, 211--398. (Special issue in honor of Emanuel Leeuwenberg)
  Contents     Editorial

Nomination

• Top 10 finalist in the 2007 Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest with "Kaleidoscopic motion and velocity illusions"

PhD Students

Teaching and Supervision

• see Teaching

Invited Presentations

• see Presentations

Acquisition

• Personal grants from the Radboud University Nijmegen (1989, 1993)
• Personal grant plus extension from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995, 1998)
• Huygens grant from the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (2000)
• Stipendium from the Radboud University Nijmegen (2001)
• PhD project funded, with rank 1 of 100, by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (1989)
• PhD projects funded by the Donders Centre for Cognition (DCC) (1996, 1998, 2004, 2007)

Science Service

• Organizer and editor of the Acta Psychologica special issue Visual Gestalt formation (2000--2003)
• Convener and chair of invited symposium Principles of Symmetry Perception, Stockholm, Sweden (2000)
• Co-organizer of international perception workshops in Amsterdam (1998) and Leuven (2000)
• Member of the Editorial Board of The Open Psychology Journal

• PhD-thesis reviewer for:
  
  • Radboud University Nijmegen
  • University of Amsterdam
  • New Bulgarian University

• Project reviewer for:
  
  • Donders Centre for Cognition
  • Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
  • Belgium Organization for Pure Research

• Book reviewer for:
• Philosophical Psychology     Abstract     Full text
  

• Article reviewer for:
  
  • Acta Psychologica
  • Experimental Psychology
    
  • IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence
  • Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
  • Journal of Mathematical Psychology
  • Journal of Vision
    
  • Perception
  • Philosophical Psychology
    
  • Psychological Bulletin
  • Psychological Research
  • Psychological Review
  • Psychology Science
  • Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
  • Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
  • Symmetry
    
  • The Open Psychology Journal

University Service

• Acting head teaching of the Division of Perception in the Department of Cognitive Psychology (2001--2004)
• Chair of teaching commission to set up the Cognitive Neuroscience curriculum Action, Perception, and Consciousness (2001--2002)
• Initiator and implementator of the website of the Department of Cognitive Psychology (2001)
• Member of teaching commission to set up the new Bachelors curriculum Psychonomics (2001)
• Member of teaching commission to re-organize the courses Psychonomics 1 and Psychonomics 2 (1997)
• PhD-students representative in the board of the Department of Cognitive Psychology (1985--1987)

• Initiator, organizer, and sometimes coordinator of upgraded DCC Lectures (2000--2008)
• Guardian of the scientific content of the website of the Division of Perception (2000--2008)
• Chair of research commission to renew the mission statement of the DCC Division of Perception (1999--2000)
• Organizer of PhD course Vision Science for PhD students in the DCC Division of Perception (1999--2000)
• Organizer of research evaluations among PhD students in the DCC Division of Perception (1998--1999)
• Organizer of a series of lectures by and for PhD students at the DCC (1998)

Society Service

• Chair and board member of various local youth organizations (1970s)
• Board member and vice-chair of local Fair Trade Shop (1996--2002)
• Enhancing public awareness of the plight of the West-Malaysian indigenous Orang Asli (since 1989)
• For general information, see The Orang Asli Archive
• For a glimpse of Orang Asli life, see Sri Gumum