The Faculty of Sciences of VU University Amsterdam offers modern academic education in natural sciences, mathematics and computer science. Our ambition is that this education is attractive, inspiring and of excellent quality, is provided by internationally leading researchers, anticipates dynamically to the needs of society and challenges all science talents.

The Faculty of Sciences is pre-eminently a international learning environment. Many scientists and students from abroad work and study here, they come from all over the world. Moreover, the faculty also stimulates its students to look for international opportunities. As a scientist you can work anywhere in the world. Diversity too is considered a chance to get a wider perspective.

Ambitious? We offer high quality Master programmes. Parallel and Distributed Computer Systems is a Topmaster: internationally oriented, based on outstanding research. Students are subject to a stringent selection procedure. The teaching staff is headed by Professor Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a winner of the ACM Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award, the ACM/SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education and the IEEE award.

Organic chemists from the Faculty of Sciences have set a new world record: they managed to combine in one pot eight components to give in high yield a very complex product. This eight component reaction runs very efficient as up to nine bonds are being formed, while water is formed as the sole by-product. With this they broke the sixteen-year old world record of Ugi and Domling.