InCognito
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April 2016
Suggestions, feedback or comments? Let us know at [email protected].
Brains Abroad: Rik Ubaghs at Duke
A small ray of sunshine
falls through the blinds; the
overwhelming sound of the
forest critters outside the window
fills my room, it is 7:00 am in
the beautiful city of Durham.
Every morning I feel like I’m
back at my parents house in their
small southern village in the
Netherlands, but then I remember
I’m at Duke, the University in the
Woods. I wake up, and after a
huge American breakfast, failed
attempt to do pushups, and a
quick shower, I am ready to
leave for the lab. I could easily
take a bus to the central campus,
but walking through the Duke
Gardens seems like a better idea.
After a short 20-minute walk, I
see a large building emerge over
the trees. It must be the Chapel;
I have entered the Duke campus.
The first things I notice once
I enter the Duke Center for
Neuroengineering
(DCNE)
is not the grad student who
probably stayed overnight and
is taking a nap at his desk, but
the silence in the hallways. I am
one of the only people at the lab,
and will be until at least 11 am.
This characterizes the mindset
at the DCNE. People are more
productive when they have no
restrictions or obligations. This
seems like a great idea at first, but
putting smart, motivated people
in a lab with virtually no limits
on their creativity can be a very
dangerous combination. In the
past, researchers at the DCNE
On the way to Duke Chapel
have had some ideas that could
be considered ‘out there’. For
example, just a few weeks ago
we made controversial headlines
with experiments that gave rats a
sixth sense using infrared sensors
and taught monkeys to ride
brain-controlled wheelchairs.
“My job is to get LFP
recordings to work and
do ‘something cool’ with
the recordings
- Rik Ubaghs
This freedom also transfers
to the students in the lab. At
the DCNE, students are seen as
knowledgeable individuals, with
the know-how and curiosity
to lead their own project. Help
is limited, and ultimately the
student is in charge. This can be
overwhelming in the beginning,
and you can easily become lost.
For example, on my first day at
the DCNE I was told there was
some old hardware that was
capable of measuring Local Field
Potentials (LFP), but hadn’t been
used since 2005. Nobody was sure
whether it still worked, or how
to use it… My job was to get it
to work and do ‘something cool’
with the recordings. The whole
meeting lasted about 10 minutes,
after which my supervisor left
and I was set free in the lab.
It is very intimidating to roam
the halls of a new place without
any sense of direction or idea
about what to do. You don’t know
where to sit, who to ask for help, or
what equipment you are allowed
to handle. It took me a few days,
but once I realized that I could
virtually do whatever I wanted,
I started to explore. I slowly
started to feel like I could actually
contribute new ideas and skills
to the DCNE, and the feeling of
being lost quickly disappeared.
Now I’m working on my own
project, finding new ways to
optimize the electrophysiological
signals measured from the
brain in order to guide a BrainMachine interface (BMI). We
are using the phase properties of
the LFP at certain bandwidths to
extract spiking information that
seems most relevant to the task.
I think my experiences at Duke
and the DCNE are very common
for
research
internships,
especially those abroad. Maybe
supervisors don’t pay us enough
attention or we are working on
these big, intimidating projects
in fields we are just starting to
explore; we feel like we are being
thrown into the deep without
anyone to help us… But I think
this is something we need to
embrace as well. Supervisors
don’t know everything, we can
(quickly) learn the important
things if we set our minds to it,
and we definitely possess the
skills to become good at what we
do. Most importantly, internships
provide the perfect opportunities
to explore new fields, develop
new ideas, and learn to work
independently; we just need to
remember that we are here for a
reason, and we are here to learn.
At the end of the day I decide
to walk past Krzyzewskiville or K-ville according to the cool
kids. Wearing even the slightest
hint of blue means I get greeted
by various groups of students
shouting “Go Blue Devils”. K-ville
is the perfect example of the
‘Work hard, Play hard’ mentality
conceived
and
religiously
followed by the students and staff
at Duke. It’s a small patch of land
filled with even smaller tents,
broken wine bottles, and passed
out undergrads, all waiting in line
to get tickets to our basketball
game against UNC (Booo UNC!!
Booo!!). This description of
K-ville makes it sound like ‘Work
hard, Play hard’ is synonymous
with ‘work all day, party all night’,
but this is definitely not the whole
story. Every Duke student will
tell you that it also means ‘love
what you do, and do what you
love’. And feeling the energy at
K-ville after a hard day of work at
the DCNE, I believe it is not the
worst thing to pursue.
Page 1
Events
Drinks @ CREA
Every Tuesday, 21:00-late
New Realism: The Gaze of Science
1 April-8 May, 10:00-17:00, Café
Maslow
Exhibition bringing together artists
and scientists to experiment with
ways of seeing that go beyond the
limits of our imagination.
Amsterdam Data Science Coffee
15 April, 9:00-12:00, VU Computer
Science M143
Network of 300 scientists exchanging
Data Science knowledge and forging
partnerships within and outside
academic community. The theme of
this event is Infrastructures.
Maagdenhuis Debate 5: In research
funding, does money talk?
14 April, 17:30-19:00, Maagdenhuis
Current state of research funding,
influence of the private sector,
government’s vision for protecting
public interests, and the future
direction of academic research
funding.
Public PhD Defence: Planning skills
in adolescents with ADHD
15 April, 12:00-13:00, Agnietenkapel
Bianca Boyer discusses assessment
and treatment of planning skills in
adolexcents with ADHD.
ABC Colloquium: Rogier Kievit
29 April, 16:00-17:00, location TBA
A model for age-related differences
in executive functions, integrating
links between fluid intelligence,
white matter integrity, and processing
speed.
ABC Symposium: Is sin original?
3 May, 8:45-20:30, REC M1.03
Neural, cognitive, and social
underpinnings
of
human
cooperation.
ABC Lecture: Robert Stickgold
10 May, 16:00-18:00, REC M1.01
Sleep, memory and dreams:
cognitive neuroscience approach.
a
InCognito
Alumnus Profile: Esther van Duin
Esther van Duin graduated from
MBCS in 2012 in the behavioral
neuroscience track.
What is your current position?:
PhD at University of Maastricht
department of Psychiatry and guest
affiliation at the AMC Amsterdam in
the department of nuclear medicine.
How did you end up in your current
position?
Currently, I investigate the 22Q11
deletion syndrome, which refers to
a hemizygous deletion of an area in
the DNA (Specifically chromosome
22 location Q11). They have only
one gene instead of two- either
from their mother or from their
father. These patients are vulnerable
to psychiatric disorders especially
schizophrenia and psychosis along
with ADHD, autism and anxiety
disorders. It makes them a really
interesting
human
population
to investigate the neurobiology
underlying psychiatric disorders in
general and psychosis specifically
since these patients have 30% risk
to develop psychosis The main
goal of the project is to investigate
why some people do develop
psychiatric disorders while others
do not. I use different techniques by
combining fundamental and clinical
neuroscience. I visit patients in
their houses, all over the country to
conduct psychological assessments
and interviews- to know about their
lives, histories specifically if they’ve
had any traumatic experiences.
A second part of my project entails
ensuring that patients carry a phonelike device with them which beeps 10
times a day as a reminder to take a
saliva sample and note down details
of their external environment. We can
then relate their environment to their
stress response. We believe stress is
the main reason for development of
such psychiatric disorders and want
to investigate the daily life stress
reactivity in 22q11DS.
The third part of my project
involves PET imaging work where
we trace dopamine D 2/3 receptors
during a reward learning task. While
Esther supervises the annual pressure
cooker
participants are in the scanner they
perform a reward learning task. We
are interested in their reward systems
specifically in the symptoms of
anhedonia and if it’s relatable to their
dopamine functions.
The final part of my project
consists of biological work. I take
blood sample for DNA isolation
to do genetic analysis, to associate
the 22q11DS genotype with their
phenotypes. It’s a huge test battery
and a huge project- I am currently in
my 2nd year and will soon start with
data analysis of the scan images and
PET results.
What do your daily activities consist
of?
After graduation, I was selected
for national think tank which is
a project for three months where
you work with 20 graduate/PhD
students on a societal issue. The main
goal is to bridge the gap between
society, business, science and the
government. For me, it was a really
nice way to know the different sectors
as I was in doubt of continuing in
“It’s not necessary to
finish a 4-year project if
you don’t like it.
-Esther van Duin
science. Also, it was a very selective
program so very honorable and a
great opportunity. This was three
months after graduation.
I learnt a lot about my strengths,
about how to make issue trees (!), and
how a job looks like outside science.
During that time, I decided not to
continue in science. For me, doing a
society-oriented job suited me much
better. So, I decided to decline thesis
professor’s offer to do a PhD In her
lab.
After the national think tank, I
became a teacher at the IIS in the
Master (teaching STICS) and in the
bachelor program Beta Gamma.
Besides that, I had a part time job
as an education advisor, both for
the ministry of education and as an
independent consultant in a start
up. There we tackled questions like
how can we implement more talent
development in primary schools.
This was for half a year, during
which I met up with a lot of different
people to know more about their
jobs. I also did some business
courses to discover consultancy and
businessIf you are considering a
job outside of science than I would
highly recommend master students
April 2016
Birthdays
Urša Bernardic
12 April
Aafke Kok
14 April
Despoina Kortesidou
17 April
to apply for business courses and
traineeships.
In the end I discovered that for
the kind of jobs that I was engaged
in, it’s very helpful to have a PhD.
You gain the title of an expert and it
allows you to continue teaching on
an academic level. So a yearAafter
graduation, I applied for a PhD,
not with the intention of being a
scientist but with the goal of being
a university teacher and starting my
own company. I applied for a PhD.
position at the VU in the area of
educational neuroscience. This was
completely different from our master
program. But it didn’t end well –
I felt the scientific environment
didn’t meet my expectations and
my supervisor was not easy to get
along with. The lesson that I learnt
from this was the topic and content
of a PhD project can be fantastic
and aligned with your interests, but
that does not mean that it is the best
place for you. It is very necessary
to know the supervisor, the lab and
the department and have an idea of
your day to day life. After about 10
months, I had a burnout and decided
to quit which was a very challenging
decision but in hindsight one of the
best ones in my life. I learnt that
it’s not necessary to finish a 4-year
project if you don’t like it. During
my PhD, I was still teaching which
ended up in my favour because they
offered me to develop and lead the
pressure cooker program. During
that summer, my current professor
approached me to join her lab as a
PhD student. I was a bit wary, but
I knew the professor well and she
was well aware of my goals of not
strictly continuing in science. So I
thought of giving it another chance!
In September 2014, I started my 2nd
position – officially at University
of Maastricht at the Psychiatry
department and guest affiliation
at the AMC in the department of
nuclear medicine.
Page 2
Continues on page 4
Rafał Szymanek
22 April
Katharina Müller
23 April
Rick van Dorp
29 April
Antoina Kaiser
3 May
Ronald Dekker
5 May
Max Wunderlich
7 May
Mary-Jo Diepeveen
9 May
Sebastian Speer
9 May
Julia Rieck
16 May
Symposium
Cognito is proud to announce the
annual symposium on June 3rd!
Titled ‘Minds & Machines’, we’ll
cross the gap between artificial
intelligence and neuroscience.
Three expert speakers will
share their perspectives on
what these two exciting fields
can learn from one another.
How we can use multitasking
in an electronic environment
to become more efficient? Can
we use robotics to learn about
cognitive development? And can
computers assist autistic children
to recognize emotions in other
people?
The symposium will take place
between 18:00 and 21:00 at
Roeterseiland; keep the date free!
More details will follow soon, we
hope to see you all there!
InCognito
Words inCognito: cryptic crossword
April 2016
A cryptic crossword is somewhat like a normal crossword puzzle, except all clues are riddles in themselves. An example of a typical
cryptic crossword clue is “Disguised as a newsletter”, which would be ‘in cognito’, the title of this newsletter and a synonym for
‘disguised’. The letter count of each solution is indicated in the clue, with (4+6) meaning two words, of which the first has 4 letters,
and the second 6. Good luck on this MBCS-themed brain teaser!
Internships are hard, but the monthly puzzle
is harder. Again, no winners. To increase
your appetites for this challenge, this month
we’re giving you a choice for your reward:
either we’ll prepare the lovely Food for
thought above, or you can go for the cultural
knowledge of the history of the Netherlands!
Send your answers to newsletter.cognito@
gmail.com. Whoever gets most answers
correct, wins! The answers and winner will be
announced next month. Good luck!
Across
6. Looking back at books (10+6)
9. A date for celebrating Elvis Presley. Or a
peppermint brand. (5+4)
10. A racing track inside your head (6+7)
11. To fire, you must overcome this mountain
(4+7)
12. This issue isn’t black or white (4+6)
14. This nation isn’t doing anything (7+5)
15. Please return my participants (1+-+4)
16. These 24 hours are for the idiot of the
month (5+5+3)
Down
1. A glia of the German waterbird type
encapsulates axons (7+4)
2. A very bold bundle (5)
3. The end station before the cleavage (10+8)
4. The height of the second Greek letter is the
chance of making a type II error (4+5)
5. The daily returning beat (9+6)
7. An inferior version of the Serbian scientist
(5+5)
8. A gathering of the king of beasts (8)
11. An alphabetic diary for MBCS-student
reports (3+7)
13. A serpentine programming language (6)
Last month’s answers:
Across: 1. Bold response; 5. Multipolar neuron;
8. Brain slicing event; 11. Power; 12. Withinsubject design; 14. Rapid eye movement; 15.
Pyramidal cell; 17. Phantom pain; 18. Go nogo task. Across: 1. Between-subject design;
2. DSM; 3. Replication crisis; 4. Transgenic
mice; 6. Antagonist; 7. Confirmation bias; 8.
Brainstorm; 9. Executive control; 10. Heroin
addiction; 13. Dies natalis; 16. LGN.
Google poetry
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Horoscope
As a Taurus, you are
persistent and stubborn, and
you indulge in materialistic
desires. This month, you will
cross paths with an object
that brings out the worst
in both your stubbornness
and your indulgent desire.
One day, you will walk past
the local Japanese shop, and
through the dark window,
you will notice a cubic
watermelon—a rare fruit
native only to the land of the
rising sun. Even though the
shop is closed, this precious
and expensive specialty
product will enchant you and
your bull-headed craving.
After repeated attempts to
bash open the door with your
head, the cubic watermelon
will shimmer even brighter
with the light of an emerald
gem, mocking you with
unbearable temptation. After
one final charge forward,
you will break open the door
in a mad fury, trampling
into shelves like a bull in a
glass shop. At long last, your
Method 1: Insult
Method 2: Dismiss
­­Taurus
20 April – 20 May
persistence has paid off,
and you will stomp through
the broken tea pots and
chopsticks strewn about the
floor, only to find that the
object of your obsession now
lies on the floor in heaps of
red seedless flesh. Holding up
the remains, you will give a
defeated cry as the juice runs
down your arm.
Lucky spring attire: rubber
bodysuit
Lucky ice cream flavor:
cheeseberry
Lucky Russian medicine: vodka
Comic: How to react to laymen
Wow you study
neuroscience!? I saw
this movie which said
that we only use 10% of
our brain and if we use
more we can get psychic powers and control
the universe and...
Hahahahahah no.
Page 3
Did you know that
females are worse in
mathematics because
they have inherently
different brains than
men do?
Uhm, I don’t think you
should get your facts
from the internet.
Method 3: Bore
At the current time the
evidence supporting
your claim is very
limited and one is
therefore inclined to
reject that hypothesis
for the time being. If
however new evidence
I heard that you have right
were to be presented
one should naturally
brained people and left
brained people and that cre- shift their views. Notative people, like me, are left withstanding, scientific
studies conducted by
brained,and right brained
Gazzaniga et al. have
people are more logical and
revealed difference
scientific, like you
between the...
InCognito
April 2016
Interview with Esther continued...
What do you like and dislike about your current
position?
Pros: With respect to a PhD in general, you’re able
to work in a really challenging environment- more
so than working for a company or government. It
is intellectually stimulating. You also have a lot of
freedom, so you can plan your own time.
I also like that I have a lot of contact with my
patients, for me that is motivating because I get
to see the results. It also stems from my liking
to connect with people. Moreover, I also enjoy
supervising interns which may seem trivial but in
some places it is mandatory to supervise which is
definitely my cup of tea!
I also keep learning about how we as humans
function. I equally learn things about myself.
My goal is to bring neuroscientific knowledge to
society, and I want to gain the expertise to impart
this knowledge.
Cons: Personally, it is pretty hard because I
like interactions and collaborations, but PhD is
a lot of independent work, characterized by self
motivation. In the science sector, you won’t come
across a lot of feedback, laudatory comments or a
lot of support. This probably stems from the fact
that we as academicians are trained to be critical,
not supportive. Moreover, it’s really indirect. The
things that I investigate now may only bear fruit in
the long run and I personally prefer quick results.
Did you feel prepared by the master, and do you still
regularly use things you’ve learned in the master?
Our masters fueled my interest in bridging
interdiscliplinary gaps. Currently, I am
required to work with different people
belonging to diverse sectors/ layers of science.
Our masters consisted of mixed groups of
students which taught me to develop respect
for other areas of expertise. This helped me
prepare for my current position as a scientist.
You are also required to do a lot of internships
which is the only way to get a true feel of science.
By Despina Kortesidou
“My goal is to bring neuroscience
to society, and I want to gain the
expertise to impart this knowledge
- Esther van Duin
Looking back, what would you have done difficulty?:
I believe that knowing your own personal strengths,
what you want in your life and the necessary 21st
century skill training is extremely vital and needs
to be given time to be perfected or honed. I would
rather devote time to such training than engaging
in two long internships because not every student
wants to end up in academia. I wanted to change
this aspect which I did eventually by developing
the Pressure Cooker.
What is your advise to current students?
Explore! Not just in the scientific world but where
your personal strengths lay. Decide for yourself
why you chose this master and what you would like
to do with it. Also explore how you would like your
day to day life to look like. Interact with people
outside of science, take up business courses, look
up alumni and ask for connections, learn about
their jobs and their day to day lives!
Apply for the national think tank, even though
it is currently only in Dutch. It did change my life
significantly!
Lastly, never be frightened to follow your own
path. Academia forces you to follow a standard
At the Binnenhof in The Hague
route but many people are unaware of what else
is out there. And never feel like you’re not good
enough for the unfamiliar, they need people like
you more than you know it!
What are your next plans?
One of the things that is starting to develop
alongside my PhD is my own company, Mindlife,
but since I started the PhD, I have less time for it.
I really want to get my company started, which
would be my first goal. I have initiated work on
the development of the company. After my PhD,
I would also like to take up a role as a connector
or an advisor- bridge gaps between neuroscience
and society. Through my company, I would like to
inspire and help people with my neuroscientific
knowledge, which could be applied to hospitals,
schools, in the government and in companies. I
would like to combine this with a teaching role
at a university or in high schoolor an advisorbridge gaps between neuroscience and society.
Through my company, I would like to inspire and
help people with my neuroscientific knowledge,
which could be applied to hospitals, schools, in
the government and in companies. I would like to
combine this with a teaching role at a university or
in high school.
Food for thought: Corn soup
Spring is here, but warmth is still missing.
That looming cold makes these confused days
still perfect for enjoying heartwarming soups.
The following recipe can only be described as
the best probably -to play it safe- soup I have
made; the silky smooth texture of polenta,
the crispy bacon , the sudden explosion of
freshness of chards and corn, the pulsating
intense salty flavor of gorgonzola. Ah, yes it is
perfect. In the past I have often experimented
with corn soups, but it always seemed that
something was missing from the recipe. Until
today; the addition of the blue cheese did the
job and bound all the flavours together. I don’t
want to be overdramatic but little angels sang
in my mind after every spoonful. Just sayin’.
So! Buy the materials and I will describe you
the methods for making the soup.
Ingredients (2 bowls):
300 gr. corn
The IIS encourages students to be entrepreneurs
and critical and follow your own path. Living in
Amsterdam itself also provides a sense of liberty
which is underestimated. This has helped shape
my personality and has honed my talents as a
facilitator and consultant. I also took a few months
off during our masters to be a student assistant and
research assistant. It helped me discover avenues
outside the masters.
30 gr. gorgonzola (or more if you like)
100gr. non-fatty bacon into small cubes
3 leaves of chards
3 tablespoons polenta
30 gr. butter
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
olive oil, oregano, salt and πεππερ
Instructions
In a saucepan sauté the chopped onions until
golden, then add the chopped garlic, bacon
and polenta. Stir constantly until the polenta
gets a bit darker (but not brown) and add 3
cups of water. Lower the heat and add the
corn and the finely-chopped white parts of the
chard twigs. Stir frequently for 5-7 minutes
until the polenta boils, add pepper. Then add
the gorgonzola into pieces, try the soup and
add more salt if necessary. Finally, add the
chopped chard leaves, stir and in 1-2 minutes
remove the soup from the stove. Serve while it
is hot along with some good bread.
Page 4
Photo: Despina Kortesidou
Advertisement
InCognito
April 2016
Tesla Minor: Getting out of your scientific comfort zone
By Katharina Müller
Whenever I tell fellow MBCS students that I
am doing the Tesla minor right now, I usually
get either of the three reactions: »Oh, isn’t that
Pressure Cooker 2.0?«, »That’s how you can get
out of writing your literature thesis, right?«, or
«That’s that weird cult where people basically just
do sports, theater and energizing dances«.
As it is usually with rumours, all of these
responses bear some truth, but none of them tell
the full story. And that is why this exclusive report
will disclose what the heck Tesla is truly about.
The Tesla minor, named after the brilliant
inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla, is a five-month
programme aimed at second-year Master students
from Dutch science faculties. Its main objective
is to teach students how to apply their scientific
knowledge and skills on a real-world challenge
at the interface between science, business and
society.
In practice, this means that we consult a client
on an existing issue in interdisciplinary groups
of three students. I am for instance working on
a sustainable solution for the Port of Amsterdam,
together with an Earth scientist and a Biomedical
scientist. Sounds like the Pressure Cooker? You
are not wrong. But with all due respect, Tesla is
so much more than that, and hence also so much
more fun! Let me explain.
The first aspect is time. Even though any
consultancy-based project develops solutions
Fencing is just one of the sports you will encounter during
Tesla.
much faster than a scientific project would ever
dare, Tesla students do have considerably more
time available to make an informed decision
than we did in the Pressure Cooker. This also
means that a Tesla project often goes beyond the
mere advice-giving stage, and instead is able to
physically build a prototype, to program an app
or to write a fancy business model.
Secondly, only 50 % of the time at Tesla, we
actually spend working on our project. The other
half consists of trainings, lectures and sports.
Trainings are super valuable, since scientific
consultancy requires a very different toolkit than
good old science. We thus get trained on project
planning, communication, effective meetings or
drawing and theater. Lectures are the inspiring
part of Tesla; during those, people with cool jobs
or views on the world basically tell us what they
have learned so far. On top of that, everyone of
us also organizes their own lectures (so called
Think!s) in which we talk about a thoughtprovoking topic of our own interest.
Then we have sports. Yes, compulsory sports.
While it may sound a bit strange at first to force
students to work out, there is actually a good
reason behind it: Team building! Almost nothing
bonds you better with your team than running
around in the dirt on Monday evenings, to save
each other’s life during climbing on Wednesdays
or to get collectively yelled at with “No pain no
gain” on a Thursday at noon. On top of that, when
you get stuck in your project, there is sometimes
nothing that can help any better than to simply
get your mind off things by doing some physical
exercise. And be honest, how often have you
skipped sports because you were stressed?
Speaking of stress. Doing all these different
things at the same time in some sort of multi-task
real world scenario, there is a good chance you
will feel quite stressed at times. I am not sure yet
if I will get used to the stress, but it is definitely
teaching the perfectionist in me to prioritize
and work efficiently. And if that does not help, I
usually tell myself that if I am feeling stressed, I
am probably doing it right – since getting out of
your comfort zone is the secret motto of Tesla.
Last but not least, what I enjoy mostly about
Happy MBCS students (red circles) being happy Tesla’s.
Tesla is the personal aspect. In your internship,
even if you are lucky and your supervisor has a lot
of time for you, what they care about at the end
of the day is the project and not you personally.
At Tesla, this is different. Whatever we get taught
of course always has a benefit for our projects,
but it does this by making us grow personally
and professionally. The Tesla coordinators have
understood that businesses are made of people
and if one of those people has a problem, this
problem will affect their work and should
therefore be dealt with, no matter if the problem
is professional, interpersonal or completely
personal. This does not mean that there are no
boundaries any more; of course, everybody only
shares what they feel comfortable with. But it feels
darn nice to be given the space to share and be
human.
Sometimes, we have to do excursions to microbreweries. It
is tough.
Applications for Tesla 2017 open in May. This year, out of 29 Tesla students, 7 are studying MBCS. Let’s hear what some of them say about Tesla:
Miriam Maan
Mirjam Heinemans
Mary-Jo Diepeveen
Merrit Beck
In my project, we want to
improve the collaboration
between two institutes at the
AMC, in order to improve health
care by the use of performancebased measures. Let me say, I
love Tesla! I feel it is good for
my self-development. I like the
lectures, especially the Think!s.
I also think it is great that there
is a sports programme included.
And last but not least, the social
cohesion is awesome and a good
stimulant.
I am working on a project
for Commonland where we
try to preserve peat in the
neighbourhood of Amsterdam.
So my project is not brainrelated at all, which is weird,
but it is also a nice experience.
I learn something really new
and I can still use my general
research skills very well, just
on a different problem. People
have been telling me that all the
time, but it is nice to experience
it for myself. It makes me
realize that if I would end up
doing something outside of
Neuroscience, I would be able
to manage.
Our project is on finding
a financially viable and
sustainable business plan to
improve the management of
e-waste (electronic waste). It’s
been great! Very intense, but a
lot of fun. That comes mainly
from the good atmosphere in
the group and the fact that we
do a lot of very different things:
trainings, workshops, and
especially things I’ve never tried
before, like fencing, drawing,
or theater. It is of course also
very challenging: to work in a
different way than what we are
used to, and also with people
from different backgrounds.
We were offered the opportunity
to develop a sustainable
innovation on the Marineterrein
(former navy area next to the
Maritime Museum). We are
currently looking into the
opportunity to swim at the
Marineterrein in a sustainable
manner. Even though I am not
a morning person, I am glad to
come to Tesla every morning.
I find it difficult to grasp why
I like it so much yet. One thing
I know for sure is that I enjoy
how diverse Tesla is; I am not
doing the same thing every day,
and there is so much diversity
across the whole day.
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