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23 January 2025

Vanessa LaPointe elected as member of The Young Academy

The Young Academy welcomes ten new members, including MERLNs Principal Investigator Vanessa LaPointe. During the five-year membership, the members will champion projects focusing on science policy, interdisciplinarity, internationalisation, and the relationship between science and society and science and art. All the new members have established reputations in their field and obtained their PhD less than a decade ago. The Young Academy’s ten new members are active across the full breadth of science and scholarship and research a wide variety of subjects.

The new members are:

Max Birk (computer science, Eindhoven University of Technology)

Video games are said to be bad for mental health. Max Birk disagrees. He studies how the enjoyment derived from gaming and the intrinsic motivation behind gameplay can have a positive impact on mental health. His research combines psychology, computer science and digital health studies. People play video games because they enjoy it, not because they are compelled to. As they play, they also complete challenging tasks and learn new skills, giving them a sense of accomplishment and pride. In addition to the positive effects of respectful game design, Max also examines harmful design choices, for example games that prompt players to buy something or that have reward systems similar to those used in gambling.

Jeroen Dera (Dutch literature, Radboud University Nijmegen)

At a time when reading culture is in decline, what can we learn from young people who do enjoy reading? Literary scholar Jeroen Dera analyses the reading culture of adolescents and studies how new phenomena, such as BookTok and online reading challenges, can be used to enhance the teaching of literature in secondary schools. Within the university community, he has argued that each and every faculty should enhance the visibility of educational research.

Felix Hol (biophysics, vector biology, Radboud University Medical Centre)

Mosquitoes are extremely good at finding and biting people, spreading various diseases in the process. But how exactly do they do this? While almost everyone has had mosquito bites, we know surprisingly little about this insect's behaviour. Biophysicist Felix Hol uses different approaches and techniques to better understand the mosquito and its interactions with parasites and viruses. He explores such questions as: how do malaria parasites move in the skin? How does a mosquito taste blood? Do viruses change the mosquito’s behaviour? Finding answers to these questions will help fight the diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.

Björn Hoops (lawUniversity of Groningen)

Björn Hoops investigates which legal rules are thwarting the energy transition and how these rules can be amended to promote saving energy or generating sustainable energy. His focus is on insulating buildings and generating green energy, for example with roof-mounted solar panels. Björn explores how private individuals can drive the energy transition forward by means of green energy communities, and how private law can create more scope for them to do so. In addition, he studies the extent to which government can force people to make their buildings more sustainable.

Eline van der Kruk (biomechanics, Delft University of Technology)

Humans have more than 600 skeletal muscles and can therefore move about in countless ways, at least in theory. And yet all humans move in much the same way and adapt their movements in similar ways as they age. Why is that? How do elite athletes control their muscles to achieve optimal performance? And why is ageing accompanied by mobility issues? Eline uses computer-generated models of the human neuro-muscular-skeletal system to simulate, analyse and optimise human motion. She also designs systems that help patients and athletes learn to optimise their movements. Her research focuses specifically on the impact of ageing and the biomechanical differences between men and women.

Esther Metting (epidemiology and psychology, Groningen University Medical Centre / University of Groningen)

While the rise of e-health can make healthcare more efficient and affordable, people with low digital literacy risk losing out on quality care. Esther Metting works directly with such people (in interviews, focus groups and observational research) to design and implement e-health tools so that they meet user needs. She believes that making e-health more accessible and useful will reduce digital inequalities in healthcare and increase the impact of e-health innovations.

Vanessa LaPointe (cell biology, Maastricht University)

Cell therapies represent a groundbreaking advancement in healthcare for patients with chronic diseases. Such therapies involve implanting living cells in order to repair or replace damaged tissues, allowing the body to self-heal. Cell therapy thus addresses the root cause of disease, whereas conventional treatments focus largely on managing symptoms. Vanessa LaPointe specialises in cell therapies for vision-threatening conditions affecting the cornea and ocular surface. She conducts research across the entire bench-to-bedside spectrum, from uncovering new scientific insights to developing innovative therapies.

Petter Törnberg (computational social science, University of Amsterdam)

Is it possible to develop social media platforms that encourage productive political discourse? Social media are often linked to polarisation, but Petter Törnberg explores how these platforms can have a positive impact on society. He develops artificial social media platforms in which thousands of interactive chatbots communicate with one another, allowing researchers to test how different platform designs influence political discussions. His research is helping to identify algorithms that contribute to positive social outcomes, rather than exacerbate polarisation and radicalisation.

Lilly Verhagen (paediatrics, Radboud University Medical Centre)

Lilly Verhagen is a paediatrician who studies the immune system of the respiratory tract in vulnerable children around the world. By unravelling how antibodies function in the respiratory tract, she hopes to develop new treatments that will speed up children's recovery and reduce the use of antibiotics. For example, our understanding of respiratory infections may be better served by analysing saliva and other samples taken from the respiratory tract than by taking blood samples, which is the current practice in hospitals. Lilly combines patient care with research in the Netherlands, South Africa and the Caribbean. Her international partnerships ensure that precisely the most vulnerable groups of children benefit from her research, and that young researchers have the opportunity to build their international careers.

Mariëlle Wijermars (political science, Maastricht University)

Mariëlle Wijermars examines how authoritarian states such as Russia attempt to influence and restrict the online dissemination of information. She considers policy, the role of national and international platform companies and technological systems, and how all of these factors interact. Why do some authoritarian states succeed in pressuring foreign social media to censor online content, while others do not? And what is the impact of ‘invisible’ forms of censorship, for example influencing search engine hits about political topics?