October 2016 on education and research at Maastricht University
Employability
prioritised at Maastricht University ----p4
UM welcomes refugee
‘I don’t like hierarchy, status and egos’
and Nacho ----p8
Interview with the new Rector Magnificus Rianne Letschert ----p16
students / Meet Selman
28 Discussion Mathieu Segers: Exit Europe? -----
30 International
/ The ins and outs of hacking /
Camielle Noordam: “Pneumonia is still the biggest killer in Africa” -----
32 Off the job
-----
Peter Bollen: “I have an emotional connection with many clips” -----
p 20 What do you think of when you imagine a hacker? A solitary, nerdy guy in his mid-30s breaking into a computer system? Or the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol of the ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous? Reality turns out to be much more nuanced, as we learn from assistant professor of Digital Culture Annika Richterich. ---------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------
Further
38 Alumni
Remko Wessels among international top at Unilever -----
40 University Fund News -----
04 Leading in Learning
7, 27, 35 and 42 News
Ellen Bastiaens: Employability prioritised at Maastricht University -----
-----
08 Globalisation
----p 12
Former rectors look back on 40 years of Maastricht University
UM welcomes refugee students: meet Nacho and Selman -----
16 Portrait
Rianne Letschert: “I don’t like hierarchy, status and egos” -----
22 Spread
The new Center Court on Brightlands In celebration of Maastricht University’s 40th Chemelot Campus ----anniversary this year, video portraits have been made of the six surviving former rectors 24 of the university. In this issue you’ll find an Professor / Student abridged version of the interviews with Arie Luc van Loon and Jean Nyakayiru: Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman and Gerard Mols. On beetroot juice and Brabant ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alum Sophie van der Zee Fraud, scamming, false witnesses. Sophie van der Zee, who does cutting-edge research on dishonest behaviour and automatic lie detection, has been affiliated with several UK universities as well as the TNO Knowledge Institute. But it was Maastricht University’s Master in Psychology and Law that laid the foundation for her multifaceted career. “My love of academia was born here.” 2 UMagazine / October 2016 2015
Cover Paul van der Veer Talented photographers were asked to come up with an image relating to one of our cover stories. Paul van der Veer is the founder of Beeldplus, a creative studio for graphic design, illustration and photography. He previously worked at Lenting & Terlingen, Zuiderlicht, Epigram and Equus (the latter two in Singapore). Beeldplus allows him to explore his creative side, with a style that is versatile, fresh and above all surprising. www.beeldplus.nl
----p 36
/ Embracing diversity / Rector Magnificus Rianne Letschert
I am honoured to write, for the first time, a preface to UMagazine. A magazine that is important for our university, in which we present major developments, showcase the achievements of our staff and students, and maintain our strong relationship with alumni and external partners. After 15 years working in the field of law and victimology, I felt it was time to make a change. Although I have great passion for research and teaching and will strive to remain involved in both, at a certain moment – while eating oysters in Brittany, to be specific – I realised my main motivation is not how to improve my H index or how to obtain more personal grants. What gets me up in the morning is the drive to engage with academic life, contribute to academic growth and try to make a difference for students, staff and society at large. Universities frequently find themselves in the spotlight because things are allegedly not going well. Administrators are too focused on rankings and performance indicators. Employees complain about stress and feel frustrated by the enormous pressure they see as being imposed on them by the system. Students call for more participation and democracy, and want to be actively involved in the process of
Photo Sacha Ruland
managing a university. The media feast on fraud cases and amplify any kind of academic abuse they notice. Society in general wants to know what universities can contribute and calls on us for knowledge valorisation. It is my conviction that universities can address their problems by taking more responsibility themselves, and not merely looking to The Hague or Brussels for guidance or instructions. By working on an attractive diversity profile that provides us with ample opportunities for collective and individual development, we can give universities a sound basis for growth without the need to adhere to strict performance targets or feel trapped by work pressure. The question is, what should that profile be and how are we going to take ownership of it? For me, the two most important questions are: why are we running this university, and for what purpose? The first relates to a fundamental discussion on the academic disciplines we choose to study and the way we want to educate our younger generations. The second concerns the need and obligation to generate impact with our knowledge. I see diversity as the guiding principle here. This means, to give just one example, that we should value the work of scholars who wish to devote their time to purely curiosity-driven research (the impact of which is often only visible in the long term) as well as those who seek to excel in applied research. The key is to see research and education as a team effort, where each of our individual contributions, as dedicated academics, teachers or members of our valued support staff, come together to make a difference for society. Enjoy reading another edition of UMagazine! <<
3 October 2016 / UMagazine
Career prospects are playing an increasingly important role for students in choosing a degree. Maastricht University has therefore made employability one of its three strategic foci, alongside an international orientation and Problem-Based Learning. Programme leader Ellen Bastiaens explains what this means.
Making the implicit explicit.
When it came to job opportunities for alumni, UM had long matched or exceeded the scores of other universities. Until 2014, that is, when the figures came as an unpleasant surprise. “Unemployment among recent graduates was suddenly higher than we were used to”, says Bastiaens, programme manager of Academic Affairs. “At the same time, we were getting a lot of criticism via our annual student monitor. Students were dissatisfied with the career services, complained about a lack of information and felt they were inadequately prepared for the future.”
Important “That came as quite a shock”, Bastiaens continues. “There were logical explanations for the relatively modest evaluations, but still, alarm bells went off. Career prospects are becoming more and more important for prospective students, particularly with the introduction of the loan system. Students and certainly parents really do orient themselves towards the labour market. A degree lays the foundation for a career.” Of course, job opportunities are not the only factor involved. “First and foremost, a university needs to have strong programmes in terms of content. Also, we need to be aware that young people choose with their
4 UMagazine / October 2016
Leading in Learning
/ Emplo prioriti Maastr Univers hearts – they want to do something they find interesting. The city, the education model, the international character; everything counts. But the bottom line? Every study programme has to equip students to enter the labour market.”
Projects The Executive Board decided to place greater weight on employability. Bastiaens was tasked with drawing up an action plan. After consulting with the various faculties and UM’s ROA institute, she came up with 14 concrete projects. One of the key initiatives, in her view, is “making the implicit explicit”, as this principle applies to all study programmes. “We want to make clear to students exactly what they have learnt after their bachelor’s or master’s degree. Not only in terms of content, but competences too. This will allow them to profile themselves, showcasing their personal interests and skills such as presenting, debating, personal entrepreneurship and self-reflection. The SBE has already made a start on this.” >>
Euregion Another major aim is to connect UM with Euregional businesses. “There are so many exciting and innovative companies in and around Maastricht. But we don’t have a clear picture of this labour market,
Text Jos Cortenraad Photography Paul van der Veer
oyability ised at richt sity /
5 October 2016 / UMagazine
so we can’t properly inform our students about it. Many go looking for work in the west of the Netherlands or abroad, yet there are great jobs to be found here too. Conversely, businesses and other organisations don’t know enough about what we as a university have to offer. Our goal is to create a database that will form the basis for an app which provides all kinds of relevant information to students and other players in the Euregional labour market.” The app will not be ready this year, but Bastiaens is expecting speedier results when it comes to internships. “We plan to develop a university-wide internship database. Initiatives like TIP and KE@Work are steps in the right direction, bringing businesses and students together and allowing work and study to be combined. It would be nice to develop these projects further.”
Ellen Bastiaens
(1967), studied Applied Education Science at the University of Twente, obtaining her PhD in 1988. She has worked for the Department of Academic Affairs at Maastricht University since 2010. Last year she also joined EdLab, the UM institute for education innovation. he is responsible for education-related initiatives such as excellence programmes and employability projects.
Career centre Bastiaens’s ultimate goal is a bricks-and-mortar career centre alongside the digital app. “A professional centre for students where employers from around the Euregion can offer their internship assignments and projects. I’m betting on 2018.” <<
Nick Ummels
TIP for getting a nice job In February Nick Ummels, a graduate of the Bachelor in International Business, completed the Master in International Business specialising in Supply Chain Management. He was one of the first SBE students to take part in the Thesis Internship Programme (TIP). Successfully, too: before even finishing the internship he was offered a job by his favoured employer, Boston Scientific. “TIP allows you to combine writing your thesis with a practical assignment. At Boston I studied how returns are handled and wrote a proposal with recommendations for improvement. Another UM student will be studying the follow-up, also as part of her master’s programme.” Ummels’s proposal apparently went down well with his bosses, because the internship quickly turned into a job. In May he moved into the Department of Demand Planning. “It’s exactly what I want, working in a dynamic company and getting to focus on logistical flows. With Medtronic, Abbott and Boston Scientific, South Limburg is home to a number of large distributors of medical equipment and instruments. It’s a market that will continue to grow and that really appeals to me.” From its base in Kerkrade, Boston Scientific supplies countries all over Europe as well as numerous small distribution centres in the Middle East and Asia. “The challenge is to deliver the supplies as quickly as possible. Demand planning plays an important role in stock management and production management in the US and South America. This is where my degrees in International Business and Supply Chain Management come together.” Ummels was pleased with the supervision he received from the internship team. “TIP was still in its pilot phase at the time, but every thing was well organised and the company was very welcoming right from the outset. Combining my studies with a 24-hour-a-week internship turned out to be no problem. It’s ideal if you can base your thesis around a practical internship and then also get a nice job out of it.” <<
6 UMagazine / October 2016
News Professor Luc Soete awarded Opening of the Maastricht Order Academic Year of Merit Professor Luc Soete was awarded the Order of Merit from the City of Maastricht during his farewell ceremony as Rector Magnificus. Professor Soete received the medal for his contributions to the development of education and research at Maastricht University and his commitment to improving the international standing of both the university and the city. Mayor Penn-te Strake presented the Order of Merit on behalf of the city council. <<
On Monday 5 September Maastricht University celebrated the official opening of the academic year 2016/17. The theme of this year’s opening ceremony (and the title of the new Strategic Programme 2017-21) was ‘Community at the CORE’. CORE stands for Collaborative Open Research Education, and is a logical extension of the interdisciplinary approach that lies at the heart of education and research at Maastricht University. The programme consisted of a morning symposium and the official celebration in the afternoon. During the morning programme, moderators Catalina Goanta and Mark Kawakami interviewed the Executive Board. The mayor of Maastricht, Annemarie Penn-te Strake, discussed the importance of reciprocity between the university and the city, while Professor Ron Heeren highlighted the importance of teamwork in addressing societal issues. In keeping with tradition, the official opening took place during the academic session in the afternoon. This year’s keynote speaker was Mathieu Segers, Professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration and dean of University College Maastricht. The title of his speech was ‘This side of paradise: “Maastricht” and the burden of European unity’.
Student Award The Student Award 2016 was presented to Matthijs Bosveld (Medicine) and Sjim Romme (Health Sciences). They were both touched by the apparent lack of empathy shown by healthcare providers – something often attested to by patients. To address this, they set up the project ‘The person behind the patient’ (Mens achter de Patiënt), which pairs students with patients with disabilities or chronic illnesses. The get-togethers revolve not around the patient’s illness, but around the person who has the illness: the person behind the patient.
Edmond Hustinx Prize for Science The 2016 Edmond Hustinx prize went to a researcher from the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences. Bart van Grinsven impressed the jury with his combination of high-quality academic research and entrepreneurial drive to commercialise knowledge in collaboration with the Limburg business sector. His research focuses on smart devices, specialising in the development of new biosensor systems for applications such as blood analysis. <<
7 October 2016 2015 / UMagazine
Globalisation
/ Welcoming newcomers at Maastricht University / Text Jolien Linssen Photography Loraine Bodewes 8 UMagazine / October 2016
Vice Rector for Education Harm Hospers is clear: “As an academic institution, it is our social responsibility to help out with the refugee crisis.” Together with local partners, Maastricht University (UM) has set up a programme which enables refugees to access higher education. At the same time, students are organising events to meet and interact with asylum seekers. They all share the same goal: making a difference. Higher education “This morning we had all stakeholders at the table again”, Hospers says. “That’s a rewarding experience, since we’re dealing with complex problems that call for collaboration.” He is referring to the monthly meeting between representatives of UM, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, the Regional Training Centre Leeuwenborgh, the asylum seeker centre and the municipality. “Just to illustrate the complexity: refugees who are over 30 are no longer eligible for a student loan. They need to get permission from the city to study, otherwise they’re obliged to apply for jobs. So it’s crucial that we work together, particularly to avoid causing confusion and giving false hope to the refugees. We don’t want to add yet another disappointment to these people’s lives.” The UM Language Centre provides language courses that prepare refugees with the right qualifications for the NT2 State Exam, which is necessary to gain access to higher education in the Netherlands. In addition, it offers courses that introduce participants to Dutch society and the labour market. “Around 50 refugees are enrolled in our Dutch language courses at the moment”, Hospers says. “Now we know them well, it’s also possible to help them in other areas too. If they
want to start an English-language bachelor’s or master’s programme, for instance, we can help out with English training and testing.” But UM’s responsibility doesn’t end with getting refugees into higher education, says Hospers. “The next step is to see whether we, as a large employer in the region, can play a role in finding and providing internships, work placements and volunteer work.” Here, too, collaboration with different stakeholders is of great importance. “I think we’re all on the same page as to where we want to go. We’re in the process of making a structural change, setting up initiatives that can last a long time if need be.”
Refugee Project Maastricht
Alongside this “formal system”, as Hospers calls it, many UM staff and students are involved in volunteer work. One example is the Refugee Project Maastricht, founded by the student Aurelia Streit in January 2015. “I knew that a lot of young people wanted to do something to help refugees and asylum seekers”, she says. “So we figured it would be a good idea to establish a platform for dialogue between international students and asylum seekers housed in Maastricht, in order to create mutual understanding and exchange.” In under two years, the Refugee Project has evolved into a solid student organisation which collaborates with the asylum seeker centre and the university. Volunteers organise regular language courses, sports activities and social events such as dinners and poetry nights. “We have been overwhelmed by positivity right from the outset”, Streit says. “The asylum seekers are really happy just to meet and connect with different people, and the students are very curious. Of course there are difficult moments sometimes. We never ask people directly how or why they ended up here, yet sometimes you hear stories that are just heartbreaking. That definitely has an impact, and only motivates you to keep going.” Hospers: “It’s fantastic that students are willing to devote their time to an important social issue, and the formal and student initiatives really complement each other. Together, we can make people feel welcome here.” Streit: “I think Maastricht University is unique in this respect, and I hope many universities will follow its example.” >> 9 October 2016 / UMagazine
Nacho
/ I’m going to love it here / Nine refugees began studying at Maastricht University this year. Here, two of them share their experiences.
“I was born in Armenia, but I wouldn’t say I’m from there. I’m from the world.” Meet Nacho (23), who ended up in the Netherlands after fleeing his home two and a half years ago. He is now studying Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. “In Armenia, I studied political science and human rights at Yerevan State University”, Nacho says. But while living in the asylum seeker centre, his interest was piqued in psychology. “I discovered online psychology courses on YouTube and I got hooked. I decided that, instead of completing my bachelor’s in political science, I wanted to start a new programme altogether. So here I am.”
Integration
Nacho describes the past years as “tough”. He came to the Netherlands alone, for reasons he prefers not to talk about. He lived in various asylum seeker centres around the country, where he took language and integration courses. “From the very beginning I told myself, you’re here, so get used to it. You have no choice, you know? I’d go to the library to read about the Netherlands, about its customs and norms. I learnt the language and took the initiative to make Dutch friends. When I look back, 10 UMagazine / October 2016
Selman Housain
I actually didn’t spend a lot of time inside the asylum seeker centre. I was constantly going out, looking for opportunities to meet new people. I’m not saying it’s easy, but of course it’s easier than the challenges you’ve faced in your home country. So you should be ready to take the initiative. I ended up having friends all over the country, and I love visiting them.”
Maastricht
Nacho, who enrolled in the English track of the bachelor’s in Psychology after coming through the decentralised selection procedure, chose UM for its international character. “The great thing is that I don’t feel like a foreigner here. For someone who has a history of being an asylum seeker and being a bit discriminated against, it’s very important to be part of an international community.” Another thing which appealed to him was Problem-Based Learning (PBL). “I first experienced it during last year’s Open Day and I have to say, it was a surprise to me. In Armenia we have a more traditional system, where hundreds of students sit and listen to the lecturer, which I find quite boring. So I immediately loved the PBL system. It’s just very different and it seems it’s working out for me.” Nacho is confident about the future, and very happy about his choice to study psychology. “Being born in a post-Soviet country in a period of war, I’ve experienced a lot”, he explains. “Even when I was just a kid, I was already very interested in human behaviour. Later on I see myself as a social psychologist, and perhaps I’ll do a PhD. I’m not sure yet. But I know I’m going to love it, these three years.”
/ I want to get my dream job / Before Selman Housain (36) was forced to leave Syria in 2014, he had spent nine years working as a senior medical and quality engineer in a hospital. Now he and his family are trying to build a new life in Maastricht, where he recently started his master’s in Healthcare Policy, Innovation and Management at the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences.
system. I’m ambitious; I want to get my dream job. You know what’s funny? When I came here, I didn’t like the healthcare system at all. I felt that it took a long time to get medications and treatment. Now I understand it better, I think it’s one of the best healthcare systems in the world.” Future For Housain and his family, a new chapter in life has begun. He is satisfied with his choice for Maastricht University. “Lately, I’ve started considering doing a PhD here, or working as a lecturer”, he says. “I’m a very hard worker and I like to study, so who knows what will happen. If possible, I would like to stay in Maastricht. The city has a rich culture and background, and the people are open minded. I like that.” <<
“When I arrived in the Netherlands, I knew I’d have to start life again from scratch. In the beginning it was complicated. I had to deal with a new culture and a different language. An asylum seeker centre is a difficult place to start life anew: you either destroy it or build it up.” Housain came to the Netherlands alone, leaving behind his two children and his wife, who was pregnant at the time. By the time they were reunited almost a year later, his son was nine months old. Asylum seeker centre “Those first months, I decided to just think about the future and put all my energy into learning Dutch, for language is the key to a new life. I started to read a lot. I read everything I could find about the history, culture and geography of the Netherlands. That way I learnt to understand Dutch people and how to deal with them.” In the asylum seeker centre, he kept himself busy helping others. He translated, taught basic Dutch to fellow asylum seekers and helped them to activate bank accounts, sign rental contracts and prepare documents for family reunions. He also got in touch with as many Dutch universities as he could, knowing that an additional master’s degree would increase his chances in the labour market. “In Syria, I studied engineering and had a master’s degree in management. I realised that if I wanted to continue my career in the healthcare sector, I would need to understand the specifics of Dutch healthcare
www.facebook.com/refugeeprojectmaastricht refugeeprojectmaastricht.nl/nl
Harm Hospers (1957) studied psychology in Groningen and joined the UM Department of Health Education in 1985. He obtained his PhD and transferred to the Faculty of Psychology in 1999, where he was appointed Director of Studies and member of the Faculty Board. He became the dean of University College Maastricht in 2009. Two years later, he was also appointed Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences. Hospers currently holds the chair in Applied Health Psychology and serves as Vice Rector for Education and director of EdLab.
Aurelia Streit (1994) studied European Studies at the UM Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. She is the founder and leader of the Refugee Project Maastricht, for which she was awarded the Student Award 2015. She is currently enrolled in the Master in Public Policy and Human Development at UNU Merit.
11 October 2016 / UMagazine
Text Annelotte Huiskes Photography Archive UM and Submedia
/ I was destined to be more an administrator than a doctor /
Still from the video
In celebration of Maastricht Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 40th anniversary this year, video portraits have been made of the six surviving former rectors of the university. You can read an abridged version of two of these interviews in this issue of the magazine; for the full interviews please visit the special anniversary website at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/jubileum. These video portraits make use of unique fragments from the signing of the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s founding charter by Queen Juliana and Sjeng Tans in the Sint Servaaskerk in 1976. 12 UMagazine / October 2016
Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman (1935) is emeritus professor of Internal Medicine at Maastricht University. He previously served as dean of the medical faculty, UM rector (1998-2004) and president of the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG). He is also chair of the Supervisory Board of EP-NUFFIC, the Elisabeth Strouven Foundation and the Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra
(NESKO), member of the governmental Review Committee for Higher Education and Research, member of the board of the quality assurance agency QANU, chair of the board of the Observant newspaper, member of the Supervisory Board of the Eindhoven Corporation of Primary Health Care Centres (SGE) and chair of the Historia Medicinae Foundation.
In 1986 the internist Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman was asked to found the Department of Endocrinology at the Maastricht academic hospital. Drawn in by the pioneering spirit in Maastricht, he didn’t hesitate. He soon joined the medical faculty board, first as Vice Dean for Education and later as dean, and continued to work one day per week as an internist. After succeeding Job Cohen as rector in 1998, he decided to devote himself to administration full time. “When the university was officially opened in 1976, I’d just started training as an internist in Leiden. So I have no personal memories of that occasion. Later I understood that this was Sjeng Tans finest hour. He came from this province and was a teacher at the Henric van Veldeke college. It was a Catholic school and in the 1950s he was forced out for being a member of the social democrats. He left for The Hague to go into politics, but the experience inspired him to come back later and found the university. That’s what I’ve been told. I only met Sjeng Tans once, when he came to the hospital towards the end of his life. I was in the ward then. “The university got the green light not only due to the socioeconomic problems after the closing of the mines, but also because there were huge difficulties in higher education. A revolution started in Paris in 1968 due to the enormous increase in student enrolment. The universities just made their lecture halls bigger and changed from active to passive learning. “Harmen Tiddens [UM co-founder and first rector] found a solution in the idea of small-scale teaching following a Problem-Based Learning approach (PBL),
1998: Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman installed as rector 2001: Queen Beatrix at 25 years UM
which he had learnt from McMaster University in Canada. Together with Wijnand Wijnen [second rector], he introduced this new educational principle in Maastricht. “During my time as a rector, the Anglo-Saxon bachelor-master model was introduced. I thought it would give us the opportunity to make the bachelor’s phase more academic, training students not only in one specific domain, but combining it with humanistic values. That failed, actually, due to budget cuts by the government. Then the idea arose to establish a University College like the one in Utrecht. My expectation was that a more general approach would become more and more important, because after ten years most students would be doing something other than what they were trained for. There was a lot of resistance – the University Council was very reluctant – but Karl Dittrich [the former UM president] and I pushed it through. And I’m proud we did so, because look how successful it is these days. “My finest hour as rector was the 25th anniversary of Maastricht University, attended by Queen Beatrix. We’d become a university with an established reputation in PBL. I had a blow-up made of a photograph of Sjeng Tans and Queen Juliana at the opening 25 years earlier and put it in the hall of the main administration building, where it still hangs today.” << 13 October 2016 / UMagazine
Text Annelotte Huiskes Photography Archive UM and Submedia
/ Problem-Based Learning in need of an overhaul / Gerard Mols was a young criminal lawyer in The Hague when in 1981 he decided to move to Maastricht to help set up a new law faculty. A major draw card was Problem-Based Learning (PBL), of which he is an ardent supporter. After succeeding Arie Nieuwenhuijzen Kruseman as rector in 2004, he set to work giving PBL muchneeded overhaul.
14 UMagazine / October 2016
Gerard Mols (1951) studied law in Utrecht, obtaining his PhD in 1982. He was appointed professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure in 1988 and was dean of the Maastricht law faculty between 1992 and 2003. He served as rector from 2004 to 2012, and as scientific director of the Maastricht Forensic
Institute from 2012 until his retirement in 2016. He is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the University of Amsterdam, adviser to the Supervisory Board of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and chair of the Supervisory Board of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences.
2012: Gerard Mols hands over his position to Luc Soete
1993: Gerard Mols at the law faculty
“I came to Maastricht because I loved the PBL system, and I still do. At the law faculty we started with 100 students and everyone was very motivated, the tutors too. But over time students were no longer being pushed to work hard. And if you don’t work hard it’s devastating for the other members in the group and the level goes down. PBL was lacking in appeal for students as well as teachers, and there was no movement to develop something new. “I developed some programmes like MaRBLe and PREMIUM to stimulate research in the bachelor’s and master’s phases, and brought people from different faculties together to think about revitalising the PBL system. If we want to be ‘leading in learning’, we have to innovate. Like the Maastricht Science Programme, which was established in my time. This was a new concept in the Netherlands, studying sciences in an interdisciplinary way, and it proved to be very successful. What the university college is for liberal arts, this is for sciences. Still from the video
“I lived in this area as a child. Back then everyone depended on the coal mines; closing them was a disaster for the region. So we needed a new perspective. Maastricht University and the academic hospital were able to deliver that. “When I was dean at the law faculty, Jo Ritzen [the university president] asked me if I was interested in becoming rector. I said: I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it. I had this hesitation because I saw the rector as someone who was a great scholar, a well-known academic, someone who knew everything about all disciplines at the university. And I was just a professor of criminal law and that was it. Finally I thought, if they think I can do it, then I’ll go for it.
“I think it was very important that the university stepped into the ‘Kennis-As’ programme, working together with the Province and other institutions to contribute to the economic welfare of the region. We laid the groundwork by taking spearheads for our research. In this respect the development of the different campuses in Maastricht, Heerlen and Venlo is also very important. Maastricht University must make itself indispensable in the province. “I never thought when I came to Maastricht in 1981 that I’d still be here after 35 years. But I had a lot of different roles and positions, so it was very dynamic and I loved it.” <<
15 October 2016 / UMagazine
Professor of Victimology and International Law / Rector Magnificus Rianne Letschert
Portrait
/ I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like hierarchy, status and egos / 16 UMagazine / October 2016
Anyone who followed the media coverage of Rianne Letschert over the last six months could draw but one conclusion: she is an angel on Earth. The new UM Rector Magnificus as of 1 September bursts out laughing when she hears this. “I’m no Mother Theresa.” Later she says, “People do think I’m nice, I think, but I can be tough if something isn’t right. I’m also very impatient, especially if things are moving more slowly than they could. Take the number of women in leadership positions: I always used to see quotas as something for fishing, but I might need to change my mind about that.” This university has always had something of a rebellious character.
Text Femke Kools Photography Harry Heuts / Sacha Ruland
Early this year, Letschert was invited to meet with the committee looking for UM’s next rector. She came to Maastricht prepared to perfection, but with no expectations; curious and with nothing to lose. Though the setting was formal, the atmosphere soon felt casual and comfortable. “The same thing happened with the six deans. That was an important meeting, because if they all thought: she’s still young, she doesn’t come from Maastricht and she has no administrative experience at this level, then it would have been over before it began.” But there, too, was the same click. “I can be formal when I need to be, but if it’s not necessary I don’t like hierarchy, status and egos. Putting on a show. I really sat there thinking: what a nice club. I realise everyone has to stick up for their faculty and we’ll occasionally exchange strong words – and that’s fine, as long as it’s done in a respectful way.” Diversity Maastricht’s interdisciplinary, international profile was another immediate draw card. “That fits perfectly with how I work. Which is not to say everyone has to do it that way. At many universities the trend is emerging that if researchers don’t publish internationally, they don’t really belong. Not everyone has to be able to achieve the impossible.” In Letschert’s view, it is more important that people get the chance to do what they’re good at – be it monodisciplinary research or basic research with no obvious social application, or students who do something completely different for a year. “I see people trying to push boundaries right across the board in Maastricht. This university has always had something of a rebellious character: collaborating across faculties, doing research and teaching in a less traditional way. Not to mention my appointment. A year from now I might say we can push things further still, but so far it’s a good fit with my vision and way of working.” She gives the example of one of her PhD candidates, whose research had been ticking along via crowdfunding for a year and a half in Tilburg, but ground to a halt because the university could not provide a formal appointment. “I came into contact with SWOL by chance and within a few weeks they’d sorted everything out. That mentality really suits me: ‘yes, we’ll figure it out’ instead of ‘no, it’s not possible’.” Other than this, she is not bringing anyone else with her from Tilburg; she wanted to remain loyal to the university that gave her every opportunity over the course of 20 years. Even ‘her’ Vidi grant will stay behind. “First of all it’s nonsense to call a Vidi an ‘individual’ grant; I got it >> 17 October 2016 / UMagazine
with my entire team. Also, I’d find it financially irresponsible to take €800,000 away from the institute just like that. If UM were some kind of impoverished organisation, it might be a different story.” Great She will still be involved in the Vidi project, in her free time. Just as, over the last decade, her research has largely been a hobby alongside her management tasks. “So this job isn’t such a strange step for me, although I realise it’s not necessarily logical because I didn’t serve as dean first. In that way it’s pretty scary, but also great and above all a real honour. My strength lies in creating groups, inspiring people to think about what can be done differently.” She has little time for the attitude “that’s how it has to be, because that’s how the system is”. “We, all of us, we are the system. People and universities in general often point to third parties, but we’re also personally responsible.” As rector, she intends to actively invite colleagues to critique her performance. That keeps her sharp, she says – and if there is one thing she doesn’t have, it’s a big ego and a readiness to take offense. “Perhaps that’s also a weakness, because it means I accept things for too long. I rarely take things personally, so you won’t get into an argument with me all too quickly.” What she does have a problem with are people who badmouth her work or her decisions behind her back without saying it to her face. “You can do that once or twice, but the third time you’re out; then I’ll just ignore you, after telling you why.” And it won’t keep her up at night – this is a woman who slept soundly even after meeting with victims of the Rwandan genocide for her research on legal procedures and victimhood. “When I see emotions running high for no good reason, I’ll say, ‘We’re not trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here, are we?’ Which is not to say I compare everything to that, but we should focus on the content.”
My strength lies in creating groups, inspiring people to think about what can be done differently. 18 UMagazine / October 2016
Island culture
Such as the temporary contracts that mean many academics spend years living in uncertainty. Or the island culture that sometimes prevails at universities, where faculties put their own interests above those of the university as a whole. “I don’t want universities to be centralised, but why is there always so much tension there?” Or more women in leadership positions: “I was at the umpteenth symposium on this topic at the Young Academy and I said, ‘This is the last time I come to one of these. Because we talk about the same thing every time and we do nothing at all.’ Recently I heard an expert say that at the rate we’re going in the Netherlands, we still won’t have achieved our goals by 2080. Then I start to get impatient and I think: maybe here in Maastricht we should show how things can be different.” Letschert hopes to throw her weight behind women at UM who deserve a promotion. She has seen how, at other universities, women bear the brunt of sometimes outdated HR policies. “Only in universities does a single manager have the power to hold back someone with talent. Sometimes it’s just because they have no idea, so maybe coaching could be an answer. When we see that happening, do we take responsibility, or do we look away? The argument that there’s no
money for a promotion to associate professor or professor is often such a load of rubbish.” She plans to fight, too, for minorities and over 65s who are not yet ready to retire – not because she is Mother Theresa, she says, but because she looks at what someone has to offer the organisation.
Lucky
Letschert considers herself lucky. “I have work I enjoy, two healthy children, a wonderful partner and I live in a rich country … to my mind that’s the objective conclusion.” Finally, the question everyone has been asking her: will she be moving to Maastricht with her partner and children, aged 9 and 5? “We really like Maastricht, so it’s definitely not out of the question. But for the time being our home in Helmond is a good jumping-off point for the meetings I’ll be having around the country. In the car I can make calls, listen to music, wind down. Someone suggested having a driver, but that’s really not for me. I already feel uncomfortable about the parking spot reserved for me at the Minderbroedersberg.” <<
Rianne Letschert (1976) is professor of Victimology and International Law. At Tilburg University, she worked on the development of the International Victimology Institute (INTERVICT) and was appointed director of the institute in 2015. She joined the Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) in 2013, becoming its chair in 2015. Letschert is an international expert on the victims of war crimes, genocide and terrorism. As of 1 September 2016 she is Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University.
19 October 2016 / UMagazine
Research and society
/ The ins and outs of hacking / What do you think of when you imagine a hacker? A solitary, nerdy guy in his mid-30s breaking into a computer system? Or the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol of the ‘hacktivist’ group Anonymous? Reality turns out to be much more nuanced, as we learn from assistant professor of Digital Culture Annika Richterich.
It seems like a simple question: what is hacking? “Well, that’s actually quite a difficult one”, Richterich says. “Since the emergence of hacker culture in the late 1950s, many different meanings have been attached to it. The most common one is that of hacking as a criminal activity; breaking into systems in order to steal data or information.” Perceived as a major threat, this kind of hacking – sometimes called ‘cracking’ – probably receives the most media attention. But it’s not the whole picture.
Creative and innovative
Hacking developed from the programmer subculture, particularly – but not exclusively – at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Initially the term referred to creative, innovative and enthusiastic engagement with emerging information and communications technology. “The first hackers were 20 UMagazine / October 2016
Assistant professor of Digital Culture Annika Richterich
involved in things like programming early computers”, Richterich explains. “A prominent example of a hacking community is the free software movement founded by Richard Stallman, where developers created a non-proprietary operating system, among other things. Users are free to run and share the software, and because they can access the source code, they can study and modify it.” The idea is that citizens have the right to understand and access the technologies they use. Richterich: “Members of hacking communities generally believe in values such as technological openness and the freedom of information.” This can clash with the interests of corporations – but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all anti-corporate. “Some business models are built on open source software. It can be very interesting for corporations: an open source
Text Jolien Linssen Photography Arjen Schmitz
approach allows them to benefit from voluntary developers who help to maintain and improve their software.”
Hacking versus making
Richterich recently returned from a trip to the United Kingdom, where it became clear that members of hacking communities are still busy figuring out for themselves exactly what hacking means. The issue is complicated by the emergence of ‘maker’ culture, which is closely intertwined with hacker culture. “In the UK, I visited both hacker- and makerspaces. These places are used as shared workshops by people interested in digital technologies, such as developers, software engineers, artists and artisans; they come here to create things. By organising as a group, they have access to spaces and machines they couldn’t afford on their own. Also very important for them is the sense of community. A member of the Oxford Hackerspace told me, ‘I get people here, and I feel understood.’” The spaces Richterich visited had similar types of equipment: most had a wood and metal workshop, as well as 3D printers, laser cutters, and sewing and welding machines. “At the London Hackerspace somebody was making a table in the cellar, while upstairs people were working on a computer program.” So can fabricating a table, even if it is with the help of digital technology, be considered a form of hacking? “If someone is creating products, like a craftsman, I’d consider this making. Hacking would be the activity of working with software, hardware and electronics so as to produce innovative and sometimes unexpected results and to push the boundaries of technology. But this distinction is by no means clear-cut. Different communities are in the process of negotiating the line between hacking and making, and the results may sociology, so I’m also very interested in the social side vary.” of this technological practice.” Gender issues are a hot topic, as most hackerspaces are still dominated by white men. The same holds for ‘hacktivism’, the most Hackademic Richterich’s interest in hacking started a few years famous and controversial example of which is Anonymous, a group that uses hacking as a means of ago, when she and associate professor Karin Wenz protest, awareness raising and civil disobedience. organised a hacking marathon. During a ‘hackathon’, hackers are given a limited amount of time to work on an individual or joint project. “The goal was to develop Does Richterich consider herself a hacker? “I’d love to say yes,” she says, “but I’m not a developer and at the something which could revive interest in the mining moment I’m not creating anything. I’m researching heritage of South Limburg.” Soon, she realised these and writing, of course, but to call that hacking would hackathons could serve as the gateway to all sorts of only make the meaning of hacking even more diffuse. interesting communities. There is a collective of researchers who call themselves ‘hackademics’, so I guess you can call me a hackade“It’s a challenge to understand what these different mic.” << communities are actually doing when they’re not just following the rules of technology, but instead creatively interacting with them. My background is in
Annika Richterich (1984), studied sociology at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and media economics at the University of Siegen (Germany), where she obtained her PhD. She is assistant professor of Digital Culture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
21 October 2016 / UMagazine
22 UMagazine / October 2016
Spread
The new Center Court on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus has been in use since September. This state-of-the-art building serves as the heart of the rapidly growing campus in Sittard-Geleen. The students and researchers of the Maastricht Science Programme and the Master and Research group Biobased Materials have already taken up residence. The building will also host the Chemelot Innovation and Learning Labs (CHILL), the Brightlands Chemelot Campus team, the DSM Innovation Center and Chemelot Ventures. The building, by Ector Hoogstad Architects, was designed with a view to facilitating connection and interaction. The layers of different materials reflect the evolution of materials development in the region, from the days of the mines to the high-quality, biobased materials developed on the campus today. The official opening will take place on 16 November. Photography Hugo Thomassen
Opening of Center Court
23 October 2016 / UMagazine
Professor / student
/ On beetroot jui and Brabant / Professor of Exercise Physiology Luc van Loon / PhD candidate Jean Nyakayiru
24 UMagazine / October 2016
Text Femke Kools Photography Philip Driessen
ice If you’re accustomed to approaching your professors with awe, it comes as something of a surprise when your PhD supervisor encourages you to use his first name, puts his feet up on the table as you brainstorm study designs together, and prefers you to just drop by rather than emailing in advance. Professor Luc van Loon’s style has grown on his PhD candidate Jean Nyakayiru, but it took some getting used to. “We did have to beat out of him that formal style of address”, Van Loon laughs. Nyakayiru hopes to defend his thesis in Maastricht next year.
Luc van Loon
(1971) obtained his PhD in Maastricht and has been professor of Exercise Physiology, specialising in the role of nutrition, since 2010. He leads the M3 (Muscle Metabolism Maastricht) research group in the Department of Human Movement Sciences.
The effect of nitrate supplements on the performance of amateur and top athletes – this was the broad theme Nyakayiru’s research proposal had to fit into when he applied for a PhD position with Van Loon in 2013. He was already familiar with the literature, having studied beetroot juice, which is rich in nitrate, as a research assistant in Nijmegen during the previous year. “So I was familiar with Luc’s work.” His proposal focused on the effect on footballers’ performance after one day and after six days of consuming highly concentrated beetroot juice.
Brabant “It was a good idea to study football,” Van Loon explains, “because until a few years ago beetroot juice had only been investigated in endurance sports such as cycling and running, where it has proven benefits. We saw the focus shifting towards sports involving brief, high-intensity bursts of activity. What’s more, Jean was very enthusiastic. You’re only going to land grants in the future if you’re genuinely interested in your topic. And besides, being from Brabant like myself, he’s also quite precocious”, laughs the professor. Nyakayiru: “I want to understand everything. So when I write a proposal I think is watertight and my supervisors shoot it down, I want to understand why I didn’t spot the same issues. What do I need to learn to reach their level? I’m starting to see it has to do with many years of experience, combined with intuition.” >> 25 October 2016 / UMagazine
Jean Nyakayiru (1987) trained as a physiotherapist then completed the Master of Biomedical Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen. After a stint as a research assistant in Nijmegen, he started his PhD research in Maastricht in 2013. He is co-supervised by Luc van Loon and Dr Lex Verdijk.
fewer PhD candidates and fewer analysts than Nyakayiru now has around him. “My supervisor was a little more removed from me, but also so enthusiastic I had to put the brakes on whenever he wanted to give me yet another new question to look into. In a way it was the opposite of what I have with Jean. It was very educational, but hard to compare with Jean’s PhD programme now.”
Team Rwanda Nyakayiru’s project started with a minor detour when he came into contact with four cyclists from the Rwandan national team, who were staying in Valkenburg. His mother is Rwandan and fled to the Netherlands with Jean and three nieces when he was six years old. “The performance and physical capabilities of these amateur cyclists seemed to be on par with those of professional Western cyclists”, Nyakayiru says. Because the performance of African cyclists had never before been studied, the research quickly made it into the prestigious British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Heated discussion Fortunately, Van Loon and Lex Verdijk, the co-supervisor on the project proposal submitted to the STW Technology Foundation, are not ones to shy away from heated discussion. “Experience is not the same as intelligence”, Van Loon says. “When you spend four years collaborating as intensively as you do with a PhD candidate, a hierarchical approach just doesn’t work for me. I see it as my role to train critical, valuable, ethical researchers who will set up new research groups in the future. That means encouraging their creativity and independence, not prescribing what they should do. That might benefit the efficiency of the project, but not the learning experience. I’d rather help to shape the researchers of the future than a top publication.”
Better researcher Nyakayiru now sees the advantages of the low-threshold Maastricht approach. “If I don’t understand something, I dare to speak up and say so. As a result, I learn more and that makes me a better researcher. When I go to conferences I really see the quality of our research group compared to others.” Such a group has many benefits for a PhD candidate, as Van Loon knows from experience. During his PhD, which he defended in Maastricht in 2001, there were
26 UMagazine / October 2016
The main lesson for the PhD candidate so far is “that we still know so little”, as Van Loon puts it. “Jean has often come to the conclusion that much less is known, in this case on the effects of diet and exercise on muscle metabolism, than he expected.” Nyakayiru concurs with a broad smile. He would love to continue with research, preferably in Maastricht. “Internationally it’s one of the largest labs where you can do this sort of research well. I love sports myself; I play football and work out and enjoy collaborating with athletes. I just want to know more about the influence of diet and exercise on our bodies.”
New family A few years ago his mother returned to live and work in Rwanda. He understands that she feels at home there, especially among her extended family. But he has put down roots here, with his new ‘family’: his girlfriend, friends and colleagues. “In Rwanda there are no jobs right now that would suit my expertise and let me do what I want to do. The science just isn’t there yet. You never know how life will turn out, but for now I’d be happy to stay in Maastricht.” <<
News Bigger, heavier children due to antibiotics Antibiotics, particularly those given during the first two years of life, stimulate children’s growth in terms of both height and weight. This is the conclusion of a study conducted at Maastricht University that followed nearly 1000 children over the course of ten years, also taking into account other factors that can influence growth. The research was made possible by KOALA, a large-scale Maastricht study in which children are followed from birth. The results were published in the Journal of Pediatrics. The study analysed data from GPs on the use of antibiotics in 979 children during the first ten years of their lives. Children who received antibiotics in their first six months and those who received several antibiotic treatments between their first and second year ended up notably taller and heavier than children who had not received antibiotics. Given the national rise in obesity, the researchers recommend taking this effect of certain antibiotics into account when issuing prescriptions. Children are currently still the main recipients of antibiotics. Around 70% of treatments are prescribed for respiratory infections, often unnecessarily. <<
UM best young university in Europe Maastricht University is among the best young universities in the world. This year, UM reached 7th place in the QS Top 50 under 50 ranking, one place higher than last year. This makes UM the best young European university out of the 18 European universities in the top 50. It is the sixth time this ranking for universities established fewer than 50 years ago has been published. Asian universities dominate the top of the list. Places 1 to 6 are occupied by three universities from Hong Kong, two from South Korea and one from Singapore. Five of the universities in the top six are technical universities. The top 10 includes two other European institutions: the Universitat Autonóma de Barcelona and the University
of Antwerp. Both of these universities are, like UM, part of the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN).
KNAW appoints two UM members
Karin Bijsterveld (54) is professor of Science, Technology and Modern Culture at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her research focuses on the cultural history of sound, making her one of the pioneers of the interdisciplinary field of sound studies. She has published on the history of noise, the relationship between technology and music, the rise of the car radio, and the role of listening in science and engineering. Her work has also attracted public interest. She collaborated with the Amsterdam Museum on a simulation of the sounds of the Dam in 1895 and 1935, and has worked as an adviser for a London Science Museum project.
Two Maastricht University professors have been appointed to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). Karin Bijsterveld and André Klip are among the 16 new members of the Academy. Members are leading academics from all disciplines and are selected based on peer nominations from within and outside KNAW, which now has approximately 500 lifetime members. The new members were officially installed on Monday 12 September 2016 at the KNAW Trippenhuis.
The ‘Top 50 under 50’ is a derivative of the QS World University Rankings (WUR) which was published earlier this year. UM came 173rd on this list, after ranking 169th last year. <<
André Klip (51) is professor of Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Transnational Criminal Law at the Faculty of Law. He is a leading Dutch and European authority on international and European criminal law and criminal procedure. He made an important contribution to European criminal law research, a field that was on the verge of becoming obsolete 20 years ago and is now beginning to flourish. In addition, he has long been involved in and committed to legal practice, having contributed to the proceedings at the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. << 27 October 2016 2015 / UMagazine
Discussion
Text Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Rafaël Philippen
/ Exit Europe? / Brexit is shaking the very foundations of Europe. But it doesn’t have to be disastrous, according to Mathieu Segers, professor of Contemporary European History. It is revealing the fault lines between social classes and between member states, to be sure, but that yields insight. The real crisis concerns the integration ideal. This is crunch time – so how can Europe move past it? “National politicians really have to start engaging with the European project.” 28 UMagazine / October 2016
Mathieu Segers
(1976) is professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration at Maastricht University and dean of the University College Maastricht. He specialises in post-war relations between West Germany and France and trans-Atlantic relations in the context of European integration. His book Reis naar het continent. Nederland en de Europese integratie 1950-heden won the prize for the best Dutch political book of 2013. Segers is also a columnist for the newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.
“Brexit is the alarm that’s woken us all with a rude shock”, Segers says. “It reveals a clear division between cosmopolitans and the working class. And in a traditionally class-based society like the UK, this division is even starker.” In Segers’s view, Europe has gradually forgotten its socioeconomic ‘losers’, the people who are stuck dealing with the downside of free movement. “And yet the treaties revolve around the cornerstone of the ‘social market economy’, a common market couched in social policy. Thanks to Brexit, this core European theme is on the agenda once again.”
Patriotism
But if Europe wants to learn the right lessons from Brexit, it also needs to reckon with a difference in collective consciousness. “Britons are less haunted by the spectre of war and strong nation states than are continental Europeans, and so are less willing to surrender powers to Brussels. They see patriotism not as a threat but as salvation. For them, Europe stands for a single market without trade barriers, and nothing more.” The problem is that a comparable fault line is emerging between Western and Eastern European member states. “The Eastern countries struggled for many years under ‘international solidarity’ imposed from the top down. In their eyes, it was patriotism that brought about the fall of communism. The nation state protects them from history repeating itself, whereas Europe is there to facilitate it.” This alternative view of the nation state receives too little sympathy, Segers believes.
Credibility
Brexit is not only throwing a spotlight on the fault lines in the European integration project. “It also reveals an alternative to the Brussels model of European integration. The story used to be, either you’re in or you’re out in the cold. Brexit will make clear to everyone what you get when you’re in Europe, and what the consequences are if you leave. That’s healthy and good for the democratic debate.” It has become apparent that the old formula the European Union falls back on for every problem – more integration, more cooperation – is no longer credible. Take the refugee problem: “European ideals like humanity may be professed in the treaties, but they
are ignored in policy debates. In fact, it often seems that Europe can’t live up to these ideals at all. Consider the treatment of refugees or the deal with Turkey, a country with a less than stellar record on human rights. Ambitions seem to be merely for show. As a result, the aversion and distrust of centralised solutions only increases. This is the true crisis of Europe: the crisis of its own credibility.”
Different speeds
In the absence of reform of the EU, there seems to be no way out of the integration crisis. In Segers’s view, the two extremes – the nation state or a federation of states – are equally unrealistic. The most promising alternative may be a ‘multi-speed’ Europe of the kind proposed as early as 1994 by the present German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble. “A leading group of Western European countries would demonstrate how profitable European integration can be, and the other member states could then decide whether they want to join an experiment or not.” In fact, this type of Europe already exists; not all countries have the euro or are members of Schengen. “It’s just that we’ve shied away from drawing attention to these different speeds, for fear it would be detrimental to the sense of community. Such denial is no longer sustainable.” Whatever its form, it is crucial that the Europe of the future has a democratic mandate. “That can’t come from the European Commission, which is not elected, or from the European Parliament, which has not shown itself to be mature enough.” The only fully fledged democratic arenas are, as Segers sees it, the national parliaments. It now falls to them to step up to the plate. “The national leaders need to engage with the European project and prove that cooperation pays off. Too often they’ve managed to shirk this responsibility and hide behind the European institutions. If this engagement is not forthcoming, then Brexit will mark the start of the unravelling of European integration.”
Herculean task
This is crunch time for the future of Europe. “In the current upheaval, you can see that even values long considered unassailable – a belief in dialogue, in common solutions to cross-border problems – are losing ground. It would be a tragedy if these values were lost. An entirely different reality would take their place, and when you look at European history, it’s impossible to feel at ease with the idea of such a new world.” It is up to politicians to steer clear of this doomsday scenario. This will be a Herculean task – but first they need to win back their credibility. Segers’s advice: don’t wait until the very last minute to come up with a joint plan of action, and stop making promises and commitments that will only end up being broken. “The motto should be, better to do nothing than to pretend to be doing something. In politics nothing is more important than credibility. If you lose that, you’re on a slippery slope.” << 29 October 2016 / UMagazine
International
Text Graziella Runchina Photography Camielle Noordam
/ Pneumonia is still the biggest killer in Africa / Despite improved access to healthcare, every year millions of children die before reaching their 5th birthday. Those in sub-Saharan Africa have the highest risk of mortality. Infections form the biggest threat, and of these, pneumonia is the most prevalent. In July Camielle Noordam, who spent many years living and working in Africa, successfully defended her PhD research on pneumonia in children in sub-Saharan Africa. Here she discusses the obstacles to proper medical care. 30 UMagazine / October 2016
Camielle Noordam (1979) spent her childhood in Kenya before moving to the Netherlands in 1991. After training as a nurse, she worked in a maternity ward in Ghana and for several years in Sudan. Next she completed her master’s degree in International Health at the Royal Institute of the Tropics. After several years at Unicef in New York, she started her PhD at Maastricht University in 2014, defending it in July 2016.
That Noordam has a thing for Africa is hardly surprising. When she was barely five weeks old, she moved with her parents to northwest Kenya. Her father was an agriculturalist, her mother a nurse. The family lived among the nomads in rural Turkana, a geographically isolated area with high temperatures and low rainfall. Even after she returned to the Netherlands at the age of 12 with her mother and four siblings, they often spent summers with their father in Africa. “I never lost that connection with the continent. My roots lie in Africa; it’s always been part of my life.”
Medical care So it is understandable that Noordam would choose a PhD topic with links to the African continent, specifically sub-Saharan Africa. “Children who live there face the highest risk of mortality, especially as a result of infections. Pneumonia is the most prevalent – it’s a real killer.” In 2015, she explains, 922,000 children worldwide died of this infectious disease. In Africa pneumonia accounts for 16% of all deaths, compared to 14% for malaria and 10% for diarrhoea. “The sooner a child gets medical help, the higher the chances of recovery. So the aim of my research was to gain better insight into why children with symptoms of pneumonia receive medical care too late.” Noordam made use of existing national datasets, synthesised the results of small-scale studies, reviewed the literature and conducted observations and interviews in several African countries.
Lack of knowledge The high mortality rates are attributable in large part to the fact that not only mothers, but also healthcare workers, have trouble recognising the symptoms of pneumonia. “Spotting the signs is not easy; only 30% of the mothers are aware of the main symptoms. They know that fever is one of them, but don’t always realise that breathing problems may be another indication.” Health workers, who often have low education levels, also lack the required knowledge to recognise pneumonia in time. “Health workers are
trained to identify pneumonia by means of respiratory rate. For children between the ages of 2 and 5 this means more than 40 breaths per minute; for babies between 2 and 12 months old the cut-off is 50. But some health workers can’t count to more than 10, or they mix up the cut-off points. Working with various international organisations, we assessed the effect of counting beads: one set of counting beads per age group, one bead per breath, colour coded for the cut-off point. It’s a simple solution that can be really beneficial, particularly for health workers who have trouble with numbers.”
Big differences Yet better informed parents and health workers do not automatically translate into faster access to medical care, Noordam notes. “Another problem is the distance some parents need to travel with their sick child to reach the right care provider. And financial costs often dictate whether parents seek help in the first place. There are big differences when it comes to seeking and accessing medical care, both within national borders as well as between countries. In Tanzania 85% of children with symptoms of pneumonia make it to a medical facility, while in Ethiopia that figure is just 30%.”
Simple solutions In her PhD, Noordam recommends a number of ways of reducing child mortality from pneumonia. These include improving diagnosis through simple solutions such as the use of counting beads, or mobile phones to facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers. “Paying more attention to prevention would also make a big difference. Think of vaccinations, hygiene, access to clean drinking water and good nutrition.” In addition, she advocates better use of data in the different countries to identify the obstacles specific to each region. “What works well in one country may work much less well in another. The perception of diseases and the healthcare systems differ vastly from country to country, so this needs to be taken into account when looking for solutions.” << 31 October 2016 / UMagazine
Senior lecturer at the Department of Organisation and Strategy Peter Bollen
Text Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Harry Heuts 32 UMagazine / October 2016
Off the job
/ I have an emotional connection with many clips / Collecting music had long been a hobby of Peter Bollen’s, but it turned into a true labour of love when he started hunting down and restoring music clips from TopPop. Over the years the television broadcasters turned out to have wiped countless clips, a disproportionate number of them featuring Dutch artists. “Cleaning up clips and restoring them to their full glory gives me a real kick.”
33 October 2016 / UMagazine
Peter Bollen (1959) joined the School of Business and Economics in 1986, obtaining his PhD on management information systems in 2004. He is now a senior lecturer at the Department of Organisation and Strategy, responsible for courses in IT project management, operations management, operational strategy, modelling of business rules, and business management games.
A senior lecturer at the School of Business and Economics, Bollen wasn’t the first music enthusiast in his family. His father used to record music using a Grundig tape recorder and a cable attached to the radio. “He recorded dozens of bands that way”, recalls Bollen. Meanwhile, his eyes wander to a big screen showing music clips from the 1970s. Windjammer sings Harbour light, followed by appearances by Champagne, Teach-in and Babe. His commentary is focused on the technical: “See how good that is? Better than DVD quality.” For Bollen, it all started with cassette tapes. He and his friends used to pretend they had a radio station with their own programmes, helped along by a classmate who had made a mixer. “We recorded the Nationale Hitparade by Felix Meurders, cut out the commentary and made compilations of our favourite songs. Including home-made jingles in between. When you’re young and have limited resources, you can be very creative.”
Lip-synching
Once he got a job, he began collecting: first LPs and singles from the sixties and seventies, later TV series on DVD and CDs. He has about 5,000 of these, tucked away in a safe. At the heart of his collection are the clips from TopPop, a popular music programme for young people that aired from 1970 to 1988. Every week, against a backdrop of bubbles and glittery curtains, it showcased a curious mix of artists: the Zangeres Zonder Naam (Singer Without a Name) with her latest ballad or whoever happened to be having their 15 minutes of fame, but also international bands and world-famous stars like ABBA, the Bee Gees and The Jackson Five. After being introduced by the presenter Ad Visser, they would lip-synch to their tune while Penny de Jager danced. Bollen can’t get enough of it. “I have a real emotional connection with many of these clips. I was a teenager in the seventies. At that age you’re learning so much about life. At school parties we’d do that awkward slow-dancing to Je t’aime moi non plus by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin and Du by Peter Maffay – now there’s a record that still gives me goose bumps. Not the ‘right’ music in those days, but so much emotion.” His bedroom walls were covered in posters of bands like Slade and Mud. “I also recall a centrefold of Silver Convention, a German girl-group known for their ‘Munich disco’ style. I had broad tastes in music.”
Sprouts
Another favourite music programme from the seventies was Van Oekel’s Discohoek, the brainchild of artist and enfant terrible Wim T. Schippers. Performances were interrupted by shelves toppling over or the
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presenter Sjef van Oekel throwing up. Controversy arose following episodes involving bare breasts and queen Juliana cleaning sprouts. “We loved that sort of chaos. It was really anti-establishment.” In the nineties, the many repeats of TopPop prompted Bollen to start collecting the clips. “That’s when I discovered that only a small fraction of all those broadcasts had been preserved. The official line is that because the tapes were expensive they had to be reused.” In a suspiciously large number of cases, however, the clips that were lost happened to be those of Dutch artists. “Look at this clip of the Meteors. One of the best Dutch bands from the seventies, and the broadcasters just don’t have it any more.”
Back from the brink
Gradually, Bollen’s hobby turned into a quest to unearth the missing clips. He has since managed to recover around a thousand of them, not only from TopPop but also from other programmes, such as Veronica’s Countdown and the Tros Top 50. His aim is to save them from oblivion for contemporaries who, like him, “still live culturally in the seventies”. The clips are often of poor video quality. With the cooperation of lenders and the help of a technically minded fellow enthusiast, he learnt to digitise them and clean them up. The rescue mission takes place at home in his ‘cave’, a messy studio crammed with all kinds of equipment. “I get rid of annoying streaks on the images, remove the background noise and add stereo sound.” With some 90% of the recovered clips to go, there is still much work ahead. But Bollen is determined: “Restoring these clips to their full glory gives me a real kick.” <<
When you are young and have limited resources, you can be very creative.
News
Older people lack knowledge about their prescription medications Many older people who take multiple prescription drugs often do not know what these drugs are for, and therefore fail to use them regularly, according to a study of elderly people in South Limburg conducted at Maastricht University. The results were published on the website of the Dutch Journal of Medicine.
Minister Henk Kamp opens Brightlands Smart Services Campus
The Brightlands Smart Services Campus was officially opened by the Minister of Economic Affairs Henk Kamp in September. The ceremony was also attended by Prince Constantijn, special envoy for the Dutch startup programme StartupDelta. The campus is off to a flying start. At the opening ceremony, CEO Peter Verkoulen welcomed KPN, BNY Mellon and other
The study found that many elderly patients with polypharmacy, the use of five or more chronic medications, do not understand why they have been prescribed these drugs. This can lead to medication non-compliance, particularly among male patients and those over the age of 80. Patients who live at home with a partner tend to know more about their prescribed medications. Older people who live in a nursing home are the least well-informed. Only 15% of all participants in the study (754 in total) could explain why their medications had been prescribed. According to the researchers, patients can benefit from clear explanations by a doctor, nurse or chemist, clear visual or written instructions on how to take the medication, and special medication dispensers. If patients struggle to understand their drug indications, they will likely struggle to interpret and describe the potential side effects of these drugs. In situations like these any medication changes should be discussed not only with the patient, but also with a family member or caregiver. <<
organisations as new members of the campus community. Statistics Netherlands announced that the Center for Big Data Statistics, in which the campus will play a prominent role, is set to open in late September. And under the name â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Techruptionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the campus will, at the initiative of APG, welcome a network of large companies and start-ups seeking to invest in the development of data involved in artificial intelligence, climate change and blockchain. <<
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/ Scientist of lying /
Alumni Fraud, scamming, false witnesses. Sophie van der Zee, who does cutting-edge research on dishonest behaviour and automatic lie detection, has been affiliated with several UK universities as well as the TNO Knowledge Institute. But it was Maastricht University’s Master in Psychology and Law that laid the foundation for her multifaceted career. “My love of academia was born here.”
Text Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Rafaël Philippen 36 UMagazine / October 2016
After her bachelor’s in Social Psychology, Van der Zee wasn’t sure want to do next – until she followed the course Pyschology in the Courtroom taught by the renowned Dutch legal psychologist Willem Albert Wagenaar. “I was sold immediately. After the very first lecture I approached Professor Wagenaar and said to him: I want to be just like you. How do I go about it?” She devoured his books on miscarriages of justice and the distortion of memory, and her mind was made up: legal psychology was for her.
After her PhD she was, to her own surprise, invited to continue her research at the prestigious King’s College in Cambridge. There she designed and developed an advanced lie detector that captured the imagination of the media. It takes the form of a full-body motion capture suit, of the sort used in Hollywood films for the animation of characters such as Gollum in Lord of the Rings. Whereas traditional detectors measure stress – which affects innocent people too – her detector measures the subtle body movements associated with lying.
Harry Potter backdrop
Sophie van der Zee (1987) followed the Master in Psychology and Law at Maastricht University. After her PhD at Lancaster University, she continued her research on lie detection at King’s College Cambridge and the Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Until recently a cybercrime researcher at TNO, she is now a lecturer in Social Psychology and Work and Organisational Psychology at VU University Amsterdam.
She describes the move to Maastricht as logical. UM was the only university in the country to offer a master’s degree in Psychology and Law. Her hero Wagenaar played a crucial part in this decision too: “I followed his advice literally – he said I should go to Harald Merckelbach in Maastricht.” It was one of the best decisions she ever made. “Suddenly I was surrounded by all these students who idolised Wagenaar as well. All my interests converged in the programme, and I got acquainted with Problem-Based Learning. It was fantastic, collaborating with tutors and fellow students to discover something new.”
Automatic lie detection Van der Zee wanted to do a PhD in forensic psychology, but struggled to find funding in the Netherlands. Thanks to glowing references from “the biggest names in legal psychology” – Hans Crombag, Wagenaar and Merckelbach – she managed to find a place at Lancaster University in England. There she combined psychology with information science, focusing on automatic lie detection by means of behavioural cues. “I was interested in whether, by automating data analysis of police interrogations, you could establish more objectively whether someone was lying.” In collaboration with researchers from the University of Twente, she developed a method for automatically measuring human behaviour.
Van der Zee spent a total of five years in England. Her stay at King’s College in particular, with its centuries-old traditions, was unforgettable. “There I was, just a Dutch girl in a gown eating dinner across from a Nobel Prize winner against this Harry Potter backdrop.” In a conversation with Jet Bussemakers, the Minister of Education, she described the differences between the two education systems. “The nice thing about the Netherlands is that you can always study at a reasonably good university. In England the differences from one institution to the next are enormous, and it makes sense to keep track of the rankings. Here, on the other hand, excellence is more highly valued and incentivised.” She returned to the Netherlands for personal reasons and took a job as a cybercrime researcher at TNO. “This fit well with my interdisciplinary background and my passion for practical research.” With a focus on online fraud, one of her tasks was to evaluate a new cross-border communication system. But academia kept calling, drawing her back in. Van der Zee was recently appointed as a lecturer in Social Psychology and Work and Organisational Psychology at VU University Amsterdam. “Back to my roots,” she laughs. “I realised I needed more depth, and an academic career suits me better.”
Academic fraud And so Van der Zee is adding even more strings to her bow. The common theme in all this is her research on various practices of deception and deceit. Why do people cheat and lie? How can dishonest behaviour be deterred? With research on deception now fragmented across many different disciplines, in 2015 she organised the interdisciplinary conference ‘Decepticon’. It is a vast topic, occupied with exciting research questions: Can you tell from someone’s eye movements whether they’re lying? Do we become more dishonest after being treated unfairly? And of course: why do people commit academic fraud? The controversy surrounding Diederik Stapel – himself a social psychologist – was the talk of the town in England too. While Van der Zee makes no excuses for fraudsters, she does understand the motivation. “The academic world is competitive. You only get grants if you publish a lot, and that doesn’t happen with replication research or negative results. Young academics have no room to fail, which means the pressure to perform can be enormous. In England it’s been known to drive academics to suicide.”
Depth Via this detour, we return to the year she spent in Maastricht. “I have absolutely no doubt that the master’s in Psychology and Law laid the groundwork for my career. It gave me a solid foundation and made me even more enthusiastic about the field. My love of academia was born here.” << Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni 37 October 2016 / UMagazine
Text Jos Cortenraad Photography Remko Wessels
Remko Wessels knew exactly what he wanted when he signed up in 1986 for the brand new International Management programme at Maastricht University: an international career. Twenty five years on, there can be no doubt that the mission is accomplished. The Limburg native embarked last summer on his fifth international challenge for Unilever. We Skyped with him in Singapore.
Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni
In the background are the cheerful sounds of children splashing in the pool. The thermometer puts it at over 35 degrees Celsius. After a long day at work, Wessels is relaxing on the terrace of his home, a former British officer’s residence in the city centre. The new location doesn’t disappoint – that much is clear. “Singapore is a great city”, he says via a crystal-clear Skype connection. “Everything’s well-organised here. There are international schools for our children, healthcare, shops. It’s a very safe place. And yes, we have a really nice place to live. If you opt for an international career, you have to think of your family. My wife and our four children need to feel at home. The balance between work and family is very important. If I ever forget that, my wife Linka always knows how to put things into perspective for me. She studied philosophy and views life from many different angles.”
Career It is something he emphasises several times during the conversation: you don’t have to give up everything for your career. He would know. Wessels, 48, is now among the key financial decision makers at the giant Unilever group, producer of food products, personal care products and cleaning supplies. From his base in Singapore he is Chief Financial Officer responsible for Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia and more. The business represents a turnover of more than €7 billion, a considerable part of Unilever’s total turnover. Does he aspire to an executive role at the very top of the company? “That’s not something I think about. There’s no speck on the horizon with the label CFO of
/ Among national Unilever Remko Wessels
Alumni
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(1970) was born in Geleen, went to high school in Heerlen and studied at Maastricht University from 1986 to 1992. He currently works as CFO for Unilever in Singapore. With his wife Linka he has three daughters and a son.
all of Unilever or some other multinational. So far Unilever has always offered me new challenges, always one step up the ladder. My criteria are: will I like it and will my family come with me?”
London To date the answer has always been ‘yes’, although he did hesitate over his previous posting. “I’d held various operational positions and it was felt that after that I should go and spend a few years working at the head office in London, to be more involved at the governance level. I figured that would be interesting, but I prefer heading up our work in a country or region directly. Turned out it’s nice to see from up close how such a huge company is managed.” Before London he worked for Unilever in Russia, Greece and Portugal. And before that, he was groomed in the Netherlands for his future international posts. Early on in his career he worked at the snack manufacturer Mora in Maastricht, then still part of Unilever, and he managed the Ola ice cream division.
International It seems like the model career path for a financial manager at a multinational, but that impression requires some qualification. After graduating in 1992 Wessels launched an assembly firm for computers, spent three years working as a controller for an investment company in US real estate, then landed a job as a consultant at Coopers&Lybrand. In between all this he followed a graduate
g intertop at /
programme in Controlling in Maastricht. “While I was at Coopers I did some work for Unilever in Utrecht and they offered me a job. I had two conditions: that there would be no trial period, and that I’d be allowed to join the international group. That was no problem.” And so the choice to study at Maastricht University, way back in 1986, seems to have paid off. “I think so. At the time I went around and looked at all the economics faculties in the Netherlands. International Management was being offered for the first time, and only in Maastricht. I was even able to combine it with Business Administration. Also, the system of small-scale education in groups really appealed to me. Maastricht may not yet have had the reputation of Rotterdam or Tilburg, but I learnt a lot there thanks to PBL. Debating, discussing, presenting, voicing my opinions.”
Student life He looks back on his time in Maastricht with pleasure. “We were just a small group of students, which meant it was easy to interact with the professors. It had a real pioneering feel to it. The same went for student life. The university was small and there were few activities and associations. With some other students I helped to set up a student house and a student association that still exists. It’s about time I did another weekend in Maastricht – sometimes I really miss the city. Also because I lived there for a while with my wife after we got married.”
Sustainable It’s a nice idea, but for now his priority is Unilever. With free time hard to come by, lying around the pool is not something he gets to do every day. But Wessels is not bothered. “I feel at home at Unilever, and not just because of the financial challenge. Unilever serves two billion consumers every day. If we’re able to help all those people eat more healthily, be more economical with water or dispose of packaging in a better way, we can make a big contribution to a more sustainable world. We’re very aware that we have a social role to play. As CFO I make decisions with that in mind.” <<
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University Fund supports research projects The University Fund provided grants worth a total of €40,000 to no fewer than 12 research projects in the part quarter. The grants went to researchers from various Maastricht University faculties and covered a broad range of themes, including:
• • • • • • • •
ECG imaging in clinical practice effects of laws and regulations in the border region Islamic family law in the European context skin cancer knowledge of ethnicity in healthcare sustainability services marketing developments in employment law.
projects and facilities. In particular, substantial contributions to research and education as well as relevant projects were made by the Academic Heritage Fund, the Limburg Fund for Rehabilitation, the Professors’ Fund, the Hemker Fund, the Wagenaar Fund, the Dr Sjeng Tans Fund 2016 and the Geert Hofstede Fund. <<
The Fund also provided financial support to high-quality conferences and symposia that brought international participants to Maastricht, thus making significant contributions to the international profile of the university. In addition, the various named funds managed by the University Fund provided grants for numerous research studies,
Charity run Zweit veur Leid Maastricht’s best-known charity run, Zweit veur Leid, will be held on Sunday 17 January 2017. As usual, hundreds of students, academics and other staff from Maastricht University are set to participate. The proceeds of this year’s event will go towards helping people with severe balance problems.
from UM, developed a special vibrating belt that gives patients a new way to manage the disorder. The belt contains 12 vibration motors and a sensor which identifies the positioning of the body in space and helps the wearer to move normally without falling over.
One in five people will find themselves dealing at some point in their lives with a dysfunctional vestibular system, which can leave them severely physically impaired, unable to work and at risk of social isolation. The Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department at the Maastricht academic hospital is among the top five worldwide in diagnosing balance disorders. Researchers from the ENT department have, in collaboration with instrument engineers
But the vibrating belt is expensive, and is not presently classified as a medical device covered by health insurers. This puts its advantages beyond the reach of many patients. The Limburg University Fund is taking part in this year’s charity run to cover the costs of at least three belts and to raise awareness about balance disorders and their impact on people’s lives. <<
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University Fund organises UM jubilee tour for the region The University Fund organised a jubilee tour as a gift to the university in its anniversary year. The aim was to bring UM and academia closer to the people of Limburg, to share knowledge through a range of presentations and events, and to give back to local residents what they have helped to make possible over the course of many years. A series of events were staged all over Limburg between January and September 2016, attracting thousands of visitors of all
ages. The Student Orchestra played for elderly guests in a packed Venray church, primary school pupils in Venlo learnt about the importance of healthy nutrition, and visitors at the Schunck cultural centre in Heerlen discussed the value of dialects and bilingualism. UM academics visited secondary schools around the province to provide interactive guest lectures on artificial intelligence, criminal law and sustainability. An entire Sunday in the Regional Public Health Service in Geleen was devoted to lectures, work-
shops and presentations on behaviour in relation to nutrition and obesity. Finally, the jubilee tour was brought to a close in September with a debate on pensions organised in conjunction with the Dagblad de Limburger and attended or followed via live stream by almost 1,000 Limburg residents. The Fund is thrilled with the positive response to these events, and is proud to have been able to showcase the importance of UM and academia around the region. <<
The logos of members of the Limburg University Fund Curatorium are shown below. These respected companies and individuals are important supporters of research and education. The Limburg University Fund/SWOL is grateful to its Curatorium members for their commitment to Maastricht University.
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News Minimally invasive methods spare patients major surgery For the first time in the Netherlands, the Maastricht UMC+ has introduced two new minimally invasive techniques to repair leaking heart valves. The aim of both the NeoChord and the Carillon methods is to facilitate heart valve surgery without the need for a heart-lung machine and without having to open the entire chest cavity. One
advantage is that the patient recovery time is much shorter. Moreover, patients who would normally be excluded from surgery – due to their age, for example – are now eligible for treatment. The first patients have already been treated with these new techniques at the Maastricht UMC+ Cardiovascular Centre. <<
Smoking in public becoming less socially acceptable
years. An article about the study was published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Dutch people find smoking in public to be less socially acceptable than it once was. In addition, an increasing number of people no longer allow smoking in their own homes. These are the conclusions of a large-scale study by Maastricht University based on data from the Continuous Survey of Smoking Habits (COR), which polled more than 180,000 Dutch people over a period of ten
Smoking was found to be least acceptable on public transportation, at schools and in cars with non-smokers. The acceptance of smoking in public dropped more sharply among younger compared to older participants, and among smokers compared to non-smokers. “We see a clear decline in the acceptance of smoking in many public places, especially in restaurants”, says Karin Hummel, lead author of the study. “On the other hand, smoking in bars continues to be quite acceptable for many Dutch people. This may be due to the frequent changes in legislation on smoking in bars.” <<
Three Veni grants for UM Three young researchers from Maastricht University have been awarded a research grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Veni grants are aimed at outstanding researchers at the start of their academic careers who show an exceptional talent for research. Each grant is worth a maximum of €250,000. The UM recipients and their projects are: Paul Smeets (School of Business and Economics): What motivates investors to hold responsible investments? “My projects investigate the role of three possible drivers of socially responsible investment behaviour: financial motives, intrinsic social objectives and the psychological factor of happiness.” Agnieszka Smolinska (UM/MUMC+): The smell of liver disease. “Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) is a deadly liver disease often recognised too late. I will gather chemical and microbiological data from breath, blood and faeces and, using big-data pattern recognition, develop non-invasive markers for early diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.” Aurélie Carlier (MERLN): Shaping the building blocks of life. “In this project, I will use computational techniques to investigate how cell shape can steer cell functioning. This fundamental understanding will be used to improve the surfaces of orthopaedic implants.” <<
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Profile Education and research at Maastricht University is organised primarily on the basis of faculties, schools and institutes.
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences • • • •
Politics and Culture in Europe Science, Technology and Society Arts, Media and Culture Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences • • • • • •
School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism (NUTRIM) School for Cardiovascular Diseases (CARIM) School for Public Health and Primary Care (CAPHRI) School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNS) School for Oncology and Developmental Biology (GROW) School of Health Professions Education (SHE)
Faculty of Humanities and Sciences • • • • • •
Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (DKE) International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainable development (ICIS) Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) Top Institute for Evidence Based Education (TIER) University College Maastricht Maastricht Science Programme
Faculty of Law • • • • • • • • •
Institute for Globalisation and International Regulation (IGIR) Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO) Institute for Corporate Law, Governance and Innovation Policies (ICGI) Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL) Maastricht Centre for Human Rights Maastricht Centre for Taxation (MCT) Maastricht European Private Law Institute (MEPLI) Maastricht Graduate School of Law Montesquieu Institute Maastricht
Colophon Faculty of Psychology and Neuro science • • • • • • •
Graduate School of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience Clinical Psychological Science Cognitive Neuroscience (CN) Experimental Psychopathology (EPP) Neuropsychology & Psychopharmacology Work & Social Psychology Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre (M-BIC)
School of Business and Economics • • • • • • • • • •
Graduate School of Business and Economics (GSBE) Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA) Network Social Innovation (NSI) Limburg Institute of Financial Economics (LIFE) The Maastricht Academic Centre for Research in Services (MAXX) Accounting, Auditing & Information Management Research Centre (MARC) European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) United Nations University – Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) Social Innovation for Competitiveness, Organisational Performance and human Excellence (NSCOPE) Marketing-Finance Research Lab
Publisher © Maastricht University Chief Editor Annelotte Huiskes Editorial Board Rianne Letschert (President), Denis Ancion, Teun Dekker, Diana Dolmans, Manon van Engeland, Ad van Iterson, Jos Kievits, Alexander Sack, Hildegard Schneider, Jo Wachelder Texts Jos Cortenraad, Femke Kools, Annelotte Huiskes, Jolien Linssen, Graziella Runchina, Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Loraine Bodewes (p8), Philip Driessen (p24), Harry Heuts (p7,16,32), IStockphoto (p27,35,42), Camielle Noordam (p30), Rafaël Philippen (p28,36), Ed van Rijswijk (p29), Sacha Ruland (p3,18), Arjen Schmitz (p20), Hugo Thomassen (spread), Paul van der Veer (Cover,p5), Remko Wessels (p38) Translations and English editing Alison Edwards Graphic concept and design Zuiderlicht Maastricht Print Drukkerij Tuijtel, Hardinxveld-Giessendam
Interfaculty institutes • • • • • • • •
The Maastricht Forensic Institute (tMFI) MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine The Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) Maastricht MultiModal Molecular Imaging Institute (M4I) Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (MaCSBio) Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH) Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERIM) Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM)
Maastricht University magazine is published in February, June and October. It is sent on demand to UM alumni and to external relations. Editorial Office Marketing & Communications Postbus 616, 6200 MD Maastricht T +31 43 388 5238 / +31 43 388 5222 E annelotte.huiskes@maastrichtuniversity.nl ISSN 2210-5212 Online webmagazine.maastrichtuniversity.nl Facebook facebook.com/maastrichtuniversitymagazine
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Blow up Want to know which part of Maastricht is zoomed in on? Visit the Facebook page of the UMagazine. Facebook.com/ maastrichtuniversitymagazine
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33 01.15 / UMagazine