Eppo Bruins


Eppo Egbert Willem Bruins is a Dutch politician and physicist. He has been a member of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands for the ChristianUnion since 2 December 2015. He previously served as director of the between 2007 and 2015.

Early life and education

Bruins was born on 19 September 1969 in Apeldoorn. He attended high school at the preparatory scientific education level at the Myrtus College in his hometown between 1982 and 1987. Bruins subsequently went to the Utrecht University where and graduated with an MSc degree in physics in 1991. Afterwards, he became a doctoral researcher at the :nl:Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie|Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter for four years. In 1995, he obtained his PhD degree in mathematics and physics from the Utrecht University with a thesis entitled "The magnetic form factor of the neutron".

Career

Bruins later lived in the United States, where he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1995 to 1997. He then returned to the Netherlands, and was a project coordinator at his former training institute FOM between 1997 and 2004, subsequently director of the Leiden Institute of Physics of the Leiden University from 2004 to 2007, and director of the FOM between 2007 and 2015.

Politics

Bruins was formerly member of the Christian Democratic Appeal, but switched over to the Christian conservative political party ChristianUnion in 2011.
In the parliamentary elections of 2012, Bruins was number six on the ChristianUnion list and was not elected. On 2 December 2015, Bruins became member of the House of Representatives for the ChristianUnion, he replaced Arie Slob. He had previously served as editor-in-chief of the magazine of ChristianUnion's scientific institute.

Personal life

Bruins became religious at age 18. He first belonged to the Reformed Association in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and later became a Baptist. Bruins is the second Baptist member of the House of Representatives, preceded by.