CV
Current position
2019 - Present Postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College Dublin.
Between July 2020 and July 2023, I was employed as research fellow on the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship InterPlay project, studying infants' curiosity-driven learning. Prior to this appointment, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the FOUNDCOG ERC project (PI: Prof. Rhodri Cusack), using neuroimaging and deep learning techniques to uncover the foundations of cognition in early infancy. I am still affiliated as collaborator on the FOUNDCOG project.
Education
2014 – 2018 PhD student at Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour
Thesis: Discovering structure in the confusion: An interdisciplinary approach to studying the sense of agency and its development (Cum Laude, awarded to <5%)
Supervisors: prof. dr. S. Hunnius (promotor, supervisor) & prof. dr. H. Bekkering (promotor)
2012 – 2014 Cognitive Neuroscience (MSc) at Radboud University Nijmegen
Thesis: Between-subject variability in resting-state fMRI connectivity predicts fMRI activation during a language task
2009 – 2012 Language and Culture Studies (BA) at Utrecht University
Thesis: Language development in children with and without a familial risk of dyslexia: The relation with early speech perception
Research experience
2023 Research visit at IRCN, University of Tokyo, Japan
2018 Research visit at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2015 Research visit at Brown University, Providence RI, USA
2013 – 2014 Internship at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
2013 – 2015 ‘Sound-symbolism in dyslexia’-project at the Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics
2012 Thesis project at the Babylab Utrecht
2011 – 2012 Internship and Research assistantship at the Babylab Utrecht
International collaborations
2020 – Present Co-leading the international, multi-lab collaboration ManyBabies-AtHome, which aims to make online testing a feasible and robust method for developmental science.
Grants, funding and awards
2022 Best Postdoc Publication Award School of Psychology Trinity College Dublin
2021 Trinity College Dublin/HEA research fund (€37.000)
2020 VNOP Best Dissertation Award (Dutch Society for Developmental Psychology)
2020 Marie Curie Individual Fellowship (€185k)
2019 Travel award to attend the “Brain Produces Mind by Modeling” Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences ($1,200)
2017 Christine Mohrmann Stipend. Competitive travel stipend awarded to top 10 female PhD students across all disciplines at Radboud University, used for research visit to Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (€5,000)
2017 Donders Discussions. Standard contribution from the Donders Institute (€10,000) Main applicant for additional funding obtained from IMPRS Graduate School, MedCat, Language in Interaction and RadboudUMC (€3,050)
2017 Lorentz Center grant for organizing workshop "Perspectives on Developmental Robotics". Main applicant: Lorijn Zaadnoordijk; Co-applicants: Matthias Rolf, Matthew Schlesinger, Johan Kwisthout. (€12,500) Additional grants obtained from KNAW (main applicant), NWO and others (€8,500)
2017 Erasmus Staff Mobility Grant for Training (€850)
2016 Best poster award ICDL-EpiRob
2016 IEEE travel award to attend ICDL-EpiRob ($400)
2016 Travel grant Radboud University (€1,400)
2015 Travel grant Radboud University (€1,700)
Conference, workshop and symposia organization
2018 Self-development in infancy: How does contingent sensorimotor experience shape body knowledge, agency and action mirroring? Symposium at the Jean Piaget Society Meeting (Co-organizer, Amsterdam, 2 June 2018)
2017 Donders Discussions (Co-organizer, Nijmegen, 26-27 October 2017)
2017 Lorentz Center workshop Perspectives on Developmental Robotics (Main organizer, Leiden, 15-19 May 2017)
Public outreach
2022 Article “Lessons from infant learning for unsupervised machine learning” featured in the Independent, La Vanguardia, Silicon Republic, Medium, and many other outlets.
2022 Podcast: The Smart 7. Lessons from infant learning for machine learning
2020 Interview: “Hoe MRI-scans baby’s met hersenschade kunnen helpen” [How MRI-scans can help babies with brain damage] in Vox Magazine of Radboud University Nijmegen
2019 Guest lecturer at the DCU Centre for Talented Young Ireland program in Child Psychology
2019 Co-organizer of Pint of Science (public outreach event), Dublin, Ireland.
2018 Hey, dat ben ik! Zelfbewustzijn bij baby’s en jonge kinderen. [Hey, that’s me! Self-awareness in infants and young children] Invited presentation at Universiteit van Beek, Bibliotheek Beek-Ubbergen, The Netherlands.
Teaching and supervision
Thesis projects
2021 – 2022 Co-supervisor of final year project: The role of timing in semantic associations (UG Psychology)
2021 – 2022 Daily supervisor of final year undergrad project: Studying parent-child interaction online (UG Psychology)
2020 – 2021 Co-supervisor of final year project: Too fast, too slow, or just right: An investigation into ‘the Goldilocks effect’ of infant curiosity through stimulus speed (UG Psychology)
2020 – 2021 Co-supervisor of final year project: The effect of image complexity on infant curiosity: An investigation of the ‘Goldilocks effect’ through online testing (UG Psychology)
2019 – 2020 Daily supervisor of final year undergrad project: An analysis of the effectiveness of webcams at tracking infant gaze, compared to traditional eye-tracking methods (UG Psychology)
2019 – 2020 Daily supervisor of final year undergrad project: The effects of visual stimulus complexity on infant curiosity: An investigation through online testing (UG Psychology)
2016 Daily supervisor of thesis project (MSc Clinical & Cognitive Neuroscience)
2015 Daily supervisor of thesis project (MSc Cognitive Neuroscience)
2015 Co-supervisor of thesis project (BSc Artificial Intelligence)
2015 Daily supervisor of thesis project (MSc Biomedical sciences)
Research projects
2023 Supervisor of two research assistants
2022 Supervisor of a research assistant
2022 Co-supervisor of two research internship projects (UG Psychology)
2021 Supervisor of a research internship (UG Neuroscience)
2021 Supervisor of two summer internship projects (UG Psychology)
2019 Supervisor of an internship project (UG Medicine)
2017 Supervisor of 4 research projects (BSc Psychology)
2016 Co-supervisor of a research project (BSc Artificial Intelligence)
Courses and workshops
2021 Workshop instructor: Work-life balance (virtual retreat of the BabyBRAIN research group at Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour)
2021 Workshop instructor: The Active Self Summer School Testing “The Active Self” Online (virtual workshop for PhDs and postdocs, 28 July 2021)
2016 - 2018 Guest lecturer in Perception, Action & Development (BSc Psychology, 2nd year)
2016 - 2017 Guest lecturer in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (MSc Cognitive Neuroscience)
2017 Tutorial instructor in Research Project 2 (BSc Psychology, 2nd year)
2017 Tutorial instructor in Introduction to Brain and Cognition (BSc Psychology, 1st year)
2016 Tutorial instructor in General Introduction to Psychology B (BSc Psychology, 1st year)
2015 Tutorial instructor in General Introduction to Psychology A (BSc Psychology, 1st year)
2015 Assistant workshop instructor in Theoretical Modeling (Affective Neuroscience research group)
2014 Tutorial instructor in Perception, Action, and Development (BSc Psychology, 2nd year)