Luuk Johannes van Middelaar is a Dutch historian and political philosopher who was a member of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, which is the biggest conservative-liberal formation in the Netherlands. Since December 2009 Van Middelaar is member of the cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Council. He studied history and philosophy at the University of Groningen and the Centre Raymond Aron of the �cole des Hautes �tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. In 1999 his masters thesis "Politicide" was published. He became for a time the political adviser and speechwriter of Frits Bolkestein and Jozias van Aartsen. From August 2008 to December 2009 he had a political column in NRC Handelsblad. In 2009 he got his Ph.D from the University of Amsterdam. Subject of his doctoral thesis was the origins and development of the European Union. Van Middelaar was awarded the Prix de Paris in 1999 and the Prijs voor de Vrijheid in 2002 for his contributions to liberal thought. In December 2012 he was awarded the European Book Prize for The passage to Europe - History of a Beginning. 

January 1st, 1973 in (Age 51)