The Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund was established on 17 January 2013. Willem Albert Wagenaar (1941-2011) was a Dutch psychologist and expert in the field of human memory. He was professor of functional psychology at Leiden University. He gained international renown as an expert witness in the trial against John Demjanjuk and in the Epe incest case. He wrote many critical articles and books on topics related to legal psychology. From 1997 to 2001, Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar was rector magnificus of Leiden University. He was also rector of University College Utrecht for a short time and then professor emeritus at Utrecht University until his retirement. The initiators of the Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund wish to express their great respect for this passionate scientist by naming the fund after him.
The fund has an advisory committee that assesses how the Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund is spent. The advisory committee of the Prof. Dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund is chaired by:
“His talent for bringing complex issues into sharp focus contributed to Wagenaar being frequently called upon as an expert witness. He appeared hundreds of times as an expert in both criminal and civil cases. He never allowed himself to be swayed by magistrates and their legal incantations. In many cases, Wagenaar was able to unerringly pinpoint what judges and public prosecutors did not know. These were aspects such as an important witness who had not been heard, an alibi that had not been checked, or a complainant whose psychiatric background had not been clarified. That is why many public prosecutors and judges felt uneasy when Willem Albert Wagenaar appeared in court. With razor-sharp precision, he could analyse their arguments and expose them as nonsense from a psychological perspective.”
– From: H. Merckelbach (June 2011), In Memoriam: W.A. Wagenaar, De Psycholoog, pp. 34-38.
Would you like to support the Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund, part of the University Fund Limburg (ANBI), in its mission?
We would greatly appreciate your support. You can easily contribute via the donate button below or by transferring your donation to the bank account of the University Fund Limburg:
IBAN: NL21 INGB 0653 6632 42
for the attention of the Prof. dr. W.A. Wagenaar Fund
