UM Magazine June 2017

June 2017 on education and research at Maastricht University

25 years of the Maastricht Treaty:

party or hangover?

Five UM professors share their views on the EU

----p24

Farewell interview with Wiebe Bijker, one of the founders of the new scientific approach SCOT: The Social Construction of Technology ----p12

Hemker’s brains A look back at the PhD training of Marja van Dieijen, president of MUMC+, with Coen Hemker, professor emeritus of Biochemistry ----p16

24 Discussion 25 years of the Maastricht Treaty: party or hangover? Five UM professors share their views on the EU -----

/ Learning from ‘failed’ research /

30 Research and society

Mark Lobbes: “A contrast mammogram delivers significantly better images” -----

-----

p7

33 Off the job

Health psychologists can now also publish their ‘failed’ research in a new online journal: Health Psychology Bulletin founded by Gerjo Kok and Gjalt-Jorn Peters. The condition is that they provide open access to their data, analyses and choices. In-depth research will be rewarded and not, as it happens now, sensational findings. “With the competition model in science, you can hardly afford to find nothing.”

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Further

Michael Faure: “I definitely have a bond with my fish” -----

38 Alumni

Eric Hageman: “Balance between professional and personal life is important” -----

40 University Fund

04 Leading in Learning

Cross-border crime ----p28

Do criminal motorcycle gangs make opportune use of the national borders? One thing is certain: for authorities, the same borders currently function as a literal barrier to being able to respond to this adequately.

PhD candidate at ITEM, Kim Geurtjens, researches the cross-border nature of criminal motorcycle gangs in the Maas-Rhine Euregio. “I want to help raise as many barriers as possible for these biker gangs.”

News -----

10, 11 and 42 News

The master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management: a golden combination of commerce and science -----

12 Portrait

Wiebe Bijker: Like father, like son -----

16 Professor / Student

Coen Hemker and Marja van Dieijen: Hemker’s brains -----

19 Awards

QRS Taskforce: A skill for life -----

22 Spread

June 2017 on education and research at Maastricht University

25 years of the Maastricht Treaty:

party or hangover?

Five UM professors share their views on the EU

----p24

Farewell interview with Wiebe Bijker, one of the founders of the new scientific approach SCOT: The Social Construction of Technology ----p12

Hemker’s brains A look back at the PhD training of Marja van Dieijen, president of MUMC+, with Coen Hemker, professor emeritus of Biochemistry ----p16

4 Blue Cells: Where science meets art ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alum Eva van Diggelen

Talented photographers were asked to come up with an image relating to one of our cover stories. Harry Heuts works as a photographer for various clients. He not only photographs news, documentaries and fiction, but has also specialised as a pop photographer in recent decades. He has created images at various major events and music festivals such as Pinkpop, Torhout (nu Rock Werchter), Pukkelpop and Bruis. In addition, he teaches at the Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts and Design.

“I’m naturally a doubter, but in my job search, I realised that I had been thinking secretly for a long time: ‘Working in a museum seems like it would be the most fun.’” Eva van Diggelen, Arts and Culture alum, has been working since 2015 as a curator at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, where she curates very diverse exhibitions. That broad orientation was also in her study programme and has been a common thread throughout her life 2 UMagazine / June February 20172017

Cover Harry Heuts

----p36

www.harryheuts.com

/ What kind of university are we? / Maastricht University Executive Board Martin Paul, Rianne Letschert and Nick Bos

If you follow the ubiquitous rankings, which are based largely on elements of reputation in research, you can get the impression that everybody should follow the role models of Harvard, Stanford and Yale.

We should keep in mind, though, that these are private, elitist and highly selective institutions that are embedded in a national system with large quality differences between institutions of higher education.

So, should they indeed be role models for us? The answer is no. First of all, Maastricht University is, like all Dutch universities, a public institution that is financed largely by Dutch taxpayers. Therefore, it should not be elitist, but broadly accessible. This also means that in addition to the quality of research, the quality of education should be high. Maastricht University lives up to this ambition with its long tradition of Problem-Based Learning, the international classroom and interdisciplinary teaching.

motivated students, regardless of their national, social or ethnic status. The recent discussions on the selectivity of education programmes should be a signal of the need to offer an alternative in terms of inclusiveness. Of course, we will still have selective numerus fixus programmes that are correlated with the needs of the Dutch labour market, such as medicine, but apart from that we should not be afraid that we are selling out on quality when we attempt to include every admissible student. By encouraging individual talents, we will be able to accommodate a diverse student population from the Netherlands and abroad.

Our history, our tradition and our future outlook, as summarised in our recent strategic programme, ‘Community at the Core’, all provide the framework for UM as an open institution. We must therefore remain inclusive and accessible wherever possible and should re-evaluate our admission guidelines and address the issue of unnecessary selectivity. We must not develop into a kind of ‘Harvard aan de Maas’, but rather maintain our unique profile in the Dutch landscape: an international network university with a strong dedication to teaching and interdisciplinary research, which is deeply rooted in the region and well-connected to Europe. That is how we can fulfil our mission in the best possible way. <<

On the basis of our strong belief in the high quality of our educational model, we are confident in our ability to successfully challenge all students who qualify for university admission. Maastricht University should thus be as accessible and inclusive as possible for

Photo Sacha Ruland

3 June 2017 / UMagazine

The success of the master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management was one of the critical factors in whether or not to establish a Maastricht University campus in Venlo. The graduation of the sixth class puts an end to any possible doubt. “We’re sticking around; we’ve proven that we have a right to exist”, says associate professor and programme coordinator Freddy Troost.

Leading in Learning

/ Golden combinat of comme and scien

In fact, the Venlo campus will soon be moving to a larger location. The number of programmes has been expanded and the number of students is expected to increase from about 150 now to 500. Thus, Campus Venlo is a full-fledged branch of Maastricht University.

Freddy Troost certainly does not want to claim all the credit. The other master’s programme, Global Supply Chain Management and Change, and the bachelor’s programme in the form of a University College are popular with students from around the world. “That’s right”, says the health scientist who remained in Maastricht as a researcher and teacher after graduating in 1992. “The two-year master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management has attracted many academics and graduates from universities of applied sciences. Since the start in 2009, we select about 40 new students each year from the applicants. A quarter come from abroad—from Germany and Belgium to Brazil and Turkey. Why? First, because there’s a strong demand for experts in the field of innovations in food and nutrition. With the increase in the global population, the call is growing louder for effective production of healthy food in particular. Nowhere in the world can you find a comparable master’s programme.”

4 UMagazine / June 2017

Pioneering

It is a bold statement that requires justification.

Freddy Troost, enthusiastic and passionate, laughs.

“But it’s true. We are pioneering here in Venlo with a new approach. It’s wonderful to do, and it can only be done at a young university. The groups are small, the lines of communication short. I know every student personally. This master’s programme primarily involves translating scientific research into tangible products.

A lot of research is being done on the effects of certain substances in food on the human body. Scientists and companies look for elements that have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular disease, dementia, osteoporosis, obesity and dozens of other ailments. Good results can be found in the laboratory and clinical tests, but this doesn’t mean that it actually ends up in largescale production. Promising inventions and great ideas from companies themselves continue too often to be shelved, both by multinationals and SMEs. In this master’s programme, it’s all about the next step.”

Business case

Thus, the starting point in the master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management is not scientific research. “No, our students all have a solid background in nutrition and health, but in addition to coming up with and developing a food innovation, they make a business case. It involves both the commercial feasibility as well as the medical aspects. A good example is the product claim. As a producer, you really want to tell people that your supplement positively affects cholesterol balance or >>

Text Jos Cortenraad Photography Arjen Schmitz

tion erce nce /

Associate professor and programme coordinator Freddy Troost 5 June 2017 / UMagazine

Freddy Troost

(1973) studied Health Sciences at Maastricht University. Since graduating in 1992, he has been an associate professor and researcher, and since 2014 the coordinator for the master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management.

Julian Mellentin

Julian Mellentin, director of Nutrition Business, about the master’s programme in Health Food Innovation Management:

“Last year for the first time, we hired a master’s student from Campus Venlo”, says director Julian Mellentin. “Recently, the second one started and the experiences, quite frankly, are astonishingly good.

I’d never hired people without work experience, but these two didn’t need it. During their internship, they came with concrete plans for some of our contacts.

These are now being implemented. One young woman has developed a promising new product with dairy manufacturer Fonterra, one of the top ten in the world.

Large-scale production is going to start soon.”

Innovative

helps to ensure sufficient calcium in the bones. But the law surrounding this is very strict. Without the claim, production is usually not economically feasible. Our students examine how this works and what you can claim.”

The curriculum of the master’s programme is therefore developed using expertise from different faculties at Maastricht University: Health, Medicine and Life Sciences; Law; and Business and Economics. “We connect the different disciplines, and that’s unique. You need to have an affinity for the practical application of knowledge. You have to speak the language of the entrepreneur.”

Internship

Another thing that’s special about this master’s programme is the final internship, which lasts six months. “Students themselves look for the business where they want to conduct their final research project. They present a proposal to investigate the feasibility of a finding. It works brilliantly. Many students are offered a job after the internship. Of the 150 graduates, almost everyone has a job; the majority work at a food company and about 10 per cent choose a career in academics. This programme is a hit.” <<

6 UMagazine / June 2017

It’s not entirely coincidental that the two graduates ended up in London. “I had previously been invited for several lectures at Maastricht University.

There I was introduced to this master’s programme.

Truly innovative. The students are academically qualified in the field of food and nutrition, but they also speak the language of the entrepreneur. They can empathise, have a sense of commercialism and come up with solutions to problems. I don’t know of a single master’s programme in food and nutrition that links science with commerce. Absolutely ideal.

A golden combination.”

Translating

Julian Mellentin expects to fly more interns in from Venlo in the future. “Absolutely. We urgently need academics to translate knowledge into valorisation. And yes, there’s a big chance that we’ll lose them to our clients. Understandably, they’re located worldwide in very interesting markets. That’s fine, we’ll again hire new people.”

Nutrition Business is a relatively small company with headquarters in London and offices in the US and New Zealand. Nutrition Business analyses markets based on hundreds of interviews with executives in the world of food and nutrition, identifies trends and advises producers of food and nutrition products on bringing innovations and new products to market.

Discussion

/ Learning from â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;failedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; research / Professor of Applied Psychology Gerjo Kok / Lecturer in Methodology and Statistics Gjalt-Jorn Peters

7 June 2017 / UMagazine

Health psychologists can now also publish their ‘failed’ research in a new online journal: Health Psychology Bulletin. The condition is that they provide complete open access to their data, analyses and choices. According to founders Gerjo Kok, professor of Applied Psychology at Maastricht University and Gjalt-Jorn Peters, lecturer in Methodology and Statistics at the Open University, in-depth research will be rewarded and not, as it happens now, sensational findings. “With the competition model in science, you can hardly afford to find nothing.”

According to editors in chief Gerjo Kok and Gjalt-Jorn Peters, the cases of fraud–though not only in psychology–forced them to face the facts. They point out that a lot of research cannot be repeated successfully, which seems to suggest that much more published research falls short. Everyone also knows the cause–the system of publish or perish. Kok: “You can hardly afford to find nothing.” Peters: “Research that produces no outcomes is flawed. Research that produces clear outcomes makes everyone so happy that people forget about the details. That’s how they think at journals, too.”

Aggressive meat eaters

Is this a typical problem for psychology? Both psychologists differ in opinion on this. Kok does not think so and sees the same thing in medicine, for example. Peters believes it is a pitfall for every researcher. “But psychology is more vulnerable because it’s about people and is more susceptible to sensationalism.” He gives an example of a ‘fancy’ finding in social psychology that meat lovers should be more aggressive. How it should be, he believes can be seen in nanotechnology. “There, they publish everything. If you don’t get results in a study, you just write exactly what was done.”

The new online journal Health Psychology Bulletin (HPB) of Kok and Peters is a response to this. It has been established to allow the publication of research that does not produce results or has been executed 8 UMagazine /June 2017

Text Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Rafaël Philippen

poorly. Kok: “In fact, we allow everything under the condition that it’s clearly stated how the research was conducted. The requirement is therefore that full disclosure is given regarding all data, materials and analyses. That’s also the real mistake of poor research.

Openness allows research to be repeated, which can detect errors, and it’s a bit harder to manipulate data.

This way, we want to stimulate more transparency and integrity.”

Collaboration model

The significance of this is great. Kok: “It’s substantially important to the discipline, because for years we’ve believed in something that’s not right.

Applications arise from a wrong theory. Bad science is bad for humanity.” But there is also a methodological importance. Publishing faulty research leads to improvement. A common mistake, for example, is that conclusions are drawn based on an insufficient number of subjects. Peters: “You should always make an analysis beforehand of the minimum number of subjects that are needed. This often happens only rudimentarily.” That is why the HPB forms a platform for discussion about what has gone wrong with research, what else could have been done and what lessons can be learned from it.

Gerjo Kok (1948) is

Gjalt-Jorn Peters

professor of Applied Psychology at Maastricht University. His research focuses on applying psychological theories on behavioural change to reduce social problems.

He also engages in the development of models of behavioural change for health promotion and disease prevention, energy saving, traffic safety and discrimination.

(1981) is university lecturer in Methodology and Statistics at the Open University. His research focuses on methodology, statistics, behavioural change and health issues related to nightlife.

of publications. Kok: “That’s also necessary; there’s no more keeping up. In the past, I read a journal on the train and was caught up again. That’s now unimaginable. But here, too, you can see the duality. If I have a hit in a nice journal, I’ll broadcast it around.”

Bad science is bad for humanity.

The HPB is also an initial step in shifting from the prevailing competition model in science to a research model that focuses on collaboration. Peters: “Scientists now conduct research from their own island and see each other as competitors. But for science, it’s much more efficient to work together.” Such openness should also have a different reward system. Peters: “Instead of the impact factor of journals, you could also reward the disclosure of data sets by a researcher.

Now, the system rewards sensational findings and not in-depth research.”

Citation scores

Both psychologists realise that the competition model is almost impossible to change. Peters: “Everyone has been indoctrinated.” Kok: “It’s a catch-22. Everyone knows that the current system is flawed, but during the next visitation we’ll just be back to looking at citation scores. The citations will then again be rewarded by the universities. Those who score high, get more resources. People also want to make a career.” In any case, their initiative could not have been possible five years ago. “The awareness is there, and in ten years our approach will be normal.”

One improvement would be if the power of the professional journals is reduced. The founders of the HPB advocate for a worldwide network of cooperating universities that makes it possible to have a platform

Stone in the pond

www.healthpsychologybulletin.com

“In our bulletin, an article will almost never be rejected”, emphasises Kok, “if they just clearly write down what you can and can’t conclude. Errors aren’t bad if you’re open about them. And if people don’t want to participate, let them explain why. There’s no harm in throwing a stone in the pond to see the ripple effect.” Peters: “If our bulletin becomes a wasteland of failed research, that’s fine. Our goal is to learn from it.

That’s what we’re looking for, how it can be useful, with an emphasis not only on the outcomes but also on what you can learn from the processes.” << 9 June 2017 / UMagazine

Anita Jansen member of KNAW

News Large grant for development of intelligent bio materials

New institute of regenerative medicine

On 30 March, RegMed XB (REGenerative MEDicine Crossing Borders), a new collaboration for regenerative medicine, was launched at the Leids University Medical Center (LUMC).

The initiator of RegMed XB is UM professor Clemens van Blitterswijk (MERLN).

Regenerative medicine focuses on curing patients by repairing tissues and organs so that a transplant is no longer needed. The research within RegMed XB consists of three research lines aimed at renal failure, type 1 diabetes and osteoarthritis. Researchers at UM, LUMC, Utrecht University and Eindhoven University of Technology are working together in this. From Belgium, the University of Leuven and the Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB) are participating. A number of companies from the Brightlands Maastricht Health Campus are also affiliated with RegMed XB. RegMed XB started in 2017 with a stimulus of 18 million euros. The ambition is a structural continuation with a projected budget of 250 million euros for the first 10 years. << 10 UMagazine / June February 20172017

Clemens van Blitterswijk, together with Pamela Habibovic, also represents UM in the research programme Materials-Driven Regeneration, which recently received a Gravitation subsidy of 18.8 million euros from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Top scientists from Eindhoven University of Technology, Maastricht University, and Utrecht (UMC Utrecht, Hubrecht Institute and Utrecht University) are developing intelligent biomaterials that activate and control the body’s self-restorative ability. The universities themselves are investing six million in the programme. <<

UM 6th best young university worldwide

Maastricht University is the sixth best young university in the world, according to the Times Higher Education ‘200 under 50’ ranking. Last year, UM was in fourth place, but in this new edition was surpassed by two Korean universities. UM is still the second European university in the list, after École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, which has maintained the first position.

UM scores especially high on the indicators of international outlook (including the percentage of foreign students and staff), industry income and citations. The top five spots, with the exception of the Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, are dominated by Asian universities as in previous years. <<

The KNAW (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) has appointed Anita Jansen, professor of Experimental Clinical Psychology and dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, as a member of the Academy. KNAW members are leading scientists from all disciplines. Membership is awarded on the basis of scientific and scholarly achievement. The KNAW has more than 500 members, who are appointed for life.

Anita Jansen (1960) conducts pioneering research into eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia and obesity. Together with her team, Jansen has discovered, for example, that persons with an eating disorder have a more realistic evaluation of their body than healthy persons, and that eating behaviour is largely acquired. This is in contradiction to prevailing ideas. This and other research by Jansen forms the basis for new treatments for eating disorders and obesity. Jansen has written several popular books and often joins the public debate.

Anita Jansen: “It is a great honour to become a member of this society of excellent scientists. Psychology is a fantastic and exciting science. We study human behaviour, so it concerns almost everything. I therefore regard this membership as a unique opportunity to translate psychological knowledge to society. Because let’s be honest, that still happens far too rarely–and yet we have so much to tell.”

Rector Rianne Letschert is extremely proud of Anita Jansen and the other seventeen KNAW members at Maastricht University: “It is important that our university participates in leading scientific committees such as the KNAW. That way, we show that Maastricht University research belongs among the top, both nationally and internationally.” <<

Two NWO Rubicon grants for UM

UM researchers Jessica Hartmann and Conny Quaedflieg received a Rubicon grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), which gives promising researchers the opportunity to gain international research experience. They plan on using the grant to spend two years in Australia and Germany, respectively.

Jessica Hartmann will research sleep disorders and psychosis at the University of Melbourne’s Orygen National Centre of Excellence in Youth Mental Health. The two conditions are closely related, but which one triggers the other?

Conny Quaedflieg will research behaviour, addiction and stress at Hamburg University’s Institute of Psychology. This study attempts to determine why some people are more susceptible to this transformation by researching genotypes and dynamic brain mechanisms. <<

Underlying real-life listening revealed by human brain computations

In a new study published in PNAS, researchers from the Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre and the Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology headed by Elia Formisano, demonstrated that they could successfully reverseengineer the human brain computations that underlie real-life listening. By processing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data using mathematical models, the researchers were able to reconstruct which type of sound a participant was listening to based on their brain activity.

UM law students successful in moot court competitions

Students of Maastricht University’s Faculty of Law score well every year in both national and international moot court competitions, in which teams of students compete against each other in simulated proceedings to present a convincing legal case to an expert jury. This spring, UM student teams showed well in three major competitions.

From 7 to 13 April 2017, the international Willem C. Vis Moot took place in Washington, where the UM team made it through the first quarter to the quarterfinals. Their outstanding final score landed them among the top 8 of the more than 340 participating teams.

The researchers also discovered that the sound components and frequencies in the range of voice and speech were reconstructed more faithfully than other sound components. They suspect that this may be due to the fact that, evolutionarily speaking, distinguishing between speech and voices is more important to humans than distinguishing between different barking dogs. <<

In the European Law Moot Court (ELMC) on 31 March 2017 in Luxembourg, where teams plead before a jury of the European Court of Justice, the UM team made it to the semi-finals.

On 23 and 24 February, the Dutch Qualifying Rounds of the 2017 Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition took place in Amsterdam. The UM team took home the win for the international round in the exciting final against Leiden. Diva Dilan from the UM team was awarded the best oralist.

Third-year student Bo te Baerts claimed the victory in the national closing arguments competition (Nationale Requireerwedstrijd) on 14 April 2017 at the Palace of Justice in Amsterdam. Battling against 12 other finalists from universities throughout the country, Bo came out on top. <<

11 February JUne 2017 / UMagazine

Portrait

/ Like father, like son /

Text Femke Kools Photography Paul van der Veer 12 UMagazine / June 2017

As a little boy, for Wiebe Bijker there was hardly anything better than playing in his father’s lab—not a lab with microscopes but with outdoor models of coasts and harbours, such as the Haringvliet (1:400 scale), where he strutted around in his boots. Like his father, later in his career he got the most pleasure from the combination of theoretical research and ‘hands-on’ work. And he also found his own outdoor ‘lab’: India.

The interview on the occasion of his retirement begins with the life and work of his father, Eco Wiebe Bijker. As a coastal engineer, he led research in the North-East Polder on the strengthening of dikes, among other things. His great scientific interest, combined with his practical recommendations worldwide on the construction of ports and dikes, has always fascinated Wiebe Eco Bijker. “No, Eco doesn’t refer to nature; it’s just in our Frisian family tradition.”

Studying in Delft…

Although his father, later a professor of Coastal Engineering, never spelled it out for them, there was actually only one suitable study for his three sons: something in Delft. The family originally came from there, and his father had also studied there himself.

When his eldest son, Wiebe, proclaimed at 17 that he wanted to improve the world through a journalistic career, a lengthy conversation followed. The message was that learning a scientific discipline first is wisest, and he followed that advice. So it became Physics, in Delft.

He remembers his childhood as very pleasant, with a mother who was always there and a father who worked a lot. “As one of the few engineers in his time, he went for his PhD. The image of him, working at his desk in the middle of the living room among the children playing, is still clear to me. I don’t know if I could work that way.”

... and Groningen

Once he started the Applied Physics programme in Delft, it soon began to gnaw at him: “I wasn’t so happy with the prospects for most engineering physicists, with multinationals like Shell and Philips.

I was active in the student movement, was strongly opposed to nuclear energy and weapons, and was exploring questions about science and society.” He took the plunge and wrote a letter to professor Nauta in Groningen, asking if he could work with him to research the relationship between science and society.

Nauta, one of the most prominent, politically engaged philosophers in the Netherlands, met the young Bijker at a Groningen café and after some refinement of the idea he suggested that Wiebe follow his weekly lecture for post-graduate students without being officially enrolled. No, not many people did this at that time, but Wiebe did. His first scientific publication was in a Dutch philosophical journal.

Teaching in Rotterdam

In addition to these two studies in two places, he also began teaching natural sciences for five hours a week at a high school in the Rotterdam district of Feyenoord.

“My housemate quit and they couldn’t find anyone else. I thought, ‘why not?’. That was a fiasco.” As the most cinematic image, he remembers the moment he said to a 2 havo class, “Guys, if you don’t listen, I’m done. I’m going to read the newspaper.” It worked for that one lesson, but the following time the students >>

Professor of Technology and Society Wiebe Bijker

13 June 2017 / UMagazine

immediately said, “Sir, did you bring the paper?”. After that first year, he was convinced he should quit, but the school director persuaded him to try at a different location. “Then it went well. I liked working with children and I liked physics again. I turned out to be an educator.” If he had not lost his job a few years later due to declining student numbers, he would still be a physics teacher, of that he is sure. The realisation that he could always return to teaching, like a kind of plan B, gave him peace of mind during his later career.

Working at the farmhouse

One and a half years after graduating, he got a job at the University of Twente with professors Boskma and Smit: the central figures in critical studies of nuclear energy and weapons at the time. Their department was housed in a former farmhouse that was integrated into the campus. Wiebe was given the freedom to convert an already funded research project from a quantitative to a qualitative study on how technological inventions come about. More specifically, he examined how society affected the technology.

And then it was 1983, the year he could give the first international presentation of the project in Austria, where he ran into Trevor Pinch, the man with whom he would develop the new scientific approach, The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT). “In the early days, I never used the name ‘SCOT’, because I found it too pretentious to give your own work an abbreviation; 14 UMagazine / June 2017

but now I dare to, because everybody does it.”

On the recommendation of Bijker, Pinch was appointed as a postdoc at Twente for one year. While working at the farmhouse on their first draft paper about SCOT, they did not realise that they were on the verge of something so big. Because of some enthusiastic reactions, they decided to organise a workshop in Twente about how technology develops. “Before that time, there was primarily research on how science develops, or on history of technology. We brought together historians of technology and sociologists of science.”

Although critical notes were struck during the workshop (“I remember a sceptical German who said, ‘Does this mean that if we now vote that this room is a plane, that we can fly off?’”), the excitement was so great that Pinch and Bijker were encouraged to edit a book about it. ‘And the rest is history’, so they say.

The famous book

In the book ‘The social construction of technological systems; new directions in the sociology and history of technology’, Bijker and Pinch argue, with their coauthors, that society has a decisive influence on how technology evolves, as well as on how a scientific fact is established. The development of the bicycle is the most cited example, and the penny-farthing, or high wheeler bike, is also prominently featured on the cover of the book. “The penny-farthing was techni-

cally a strange, high thing. But it fit perfectly with an athletic, risky way of bicycling that appealed to young men.” What is considered well-functioning technology is determined by social processes, say Bijker and Pinch, not only by physics and technology. Similarly, science is also a ‘human work’. “Nature alone does not dictate what we call a scientific fact. The social process that precedes it, the human work, produces the social construct.”

Though at the time no one doubted the validity of science, we find ourselves in 2017 in a world in which ‘alternative facts’ are sometimes considered just as valuable. “Back then, it sometimes irritated me how glorified science was. The earlier social construction work was also intended to put science in its place, making science more accountable. Now I hear myself over and over again explaining how special and valuable scientific knowledge is; how we can’t do without properly verified scientific knowledge in our society, as opposed to the ‘alternative facts’ produced by climate change deniers, for instance.”

Social sciences are much more difficult than physics.

Full circle

With this, he is not claiming that only professionals can have expertise. When it comes to some very complex technological developments, such as drugs that make use of nanotechnology, you need to talk with citizens and stakeholders; that was a follow-up step in his work. “If, according to science, the risks are not entirely clear, it’s unfair to let science alone determine how you want to deal with it as a society.

I’ve tried to expand the definition of democracy.” His work as chairman of the advisory committee of The Health Council of the Netherlands, which advised the government on nanotechnology in 2006, is considered by him to perhaps be his most ‘hands-on’ work trying to improve the world. And so, it has almost come full circle. Almost…

Because the question of how science and technology contribute to a better world kept recurring throughout his life. And if that is a pressing question somewhere, then it is in a country like India, which has been in his work and his heart for more than ten years. “For me, India is a kind of laboratory for the whole world. You can’t think of a problem or solution that you won’t find in India.”

A lab in the outdoors: that is reminiscent of the Haringvliet model in the North-East Polder. “Just a little more complex in my eyes”, he says with a twinkle in his eyes. “Social sciences are much more difficult than physics.” And to top it all off he cheekily adds: “For a better society, you need social sciences—in addition to physics.” <<

Wiebe E. Bijker (1951) professor of Technology and Society at Maastricht University since 1994, will be granted emeritus status on 12 May. He has held various positions within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and elsewhere, including the presidency of the Society for Social Studies of Science. His major contributions to science have been recognised and rewarded in various ways.

15 June 2017 / UMagazine

Marja van DieijenVisser (1954) is president

Professor / student

/ Hemker’s brains / Text Annelotte Huiskes Photography Hugo Thomassen

16 UMagazine / June 2017

of the Supervisory Board of University Hospital Maastricht (azM) and president of the Board of Directors of Maastricht UMC+. She studied chemistry and mathematics at Leiden University and earned her PhD in 1981 from Maastricht University on the topic ‘Behaviour of tissue enzymes in the circulation’. Since 1993, she has been a professor of Clinical Chemistry. Between 2011 and 2014, Van Dieijen was head of the Central Diagnostic Laboratory (CDL). From 2006 through 2013, she was also managing director within azM.

Coen Hemker (1934) studied medicine and biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam, where he also received his PhD. In 1968, he became a professor of Internal Medicine at Leiden. He was one of the co-founders of the medical faculty in Maastricht in 1974 and in 1975 became chairman of the Biochemistry department. From 1982 to 1984, he was rector of Maastricht University. He has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 1986. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 scientific articles and several books in the area of blood coagulation. After his retirement, he founded the spinoff company Synapse BV that does contract research in the field of diagnostics of haemostasis and thrombosis.

“I remember a sign in your room that says, ‘Science is difficult, people are impossible’.” “That’s right,” chuckles Coen Hemker, “a gift from my professor in Oxford.” Anecdotes and memories tumble over one another in the discussion about the PhD training of Marja van Dieijen, professor of Clinical Chemistry and president of MUMC+. In January 1981, she earned her PhD under professor emeritus of Biochemistry, Coen Hemker, who at 82 is still knee-deep in science.

After studying chemistry and mathematics in Leiden, Marja van Dieijen moved to Maastricht with her husband in 1977. He got a permanent contract as a member of the academic staff at the institute of Coen Hemker, which was investigating thrombosis and coagulation. “I followed him; that’s how things went during that time. I had just graduated and was looking for a PhD position. Coincidentally, a place became available in Coens’s lab with Wim Hermens, my co-supervisor. The subject was a mix of biomedical research and mathematical models, so it suited me.”

“Marja developed a method to estimate the size of an infarct. She was the kind of PhD candidate that I would’ve liked to have had more of—with initiative and who understood where you wanted to go. She only needed half a word and she’d change something halfway through because it would lead to a better outcome. Moreover, we had more or less the same background: we both come from Amsterdam and both have a father who’s interested in science. I felt a certain kinship.”

Loving neglect

Both agree that PhD training at that time was subject to far fewer rules. According to Van Dieijen, “There was no written protocol. You just started your research and if you needed each other, you looked for each other.”

“Loving neglect”, Hemker adds.

“That’s not true”, she says laughing, “we had discussions regularly. But you didn’t have to submit a plan beforehand and set everything in stone. And the pace was very different. I still typed my articles on carbon paper and if there was an error in it, the whole page had to be done again.”

“And you had to make the figures and tables on your own with India ink and with the adhesive letters.”

“The atmosphere was very open. It was on a different scale. The university had just begun here. A PhD defence was an event, because they were so rare.”

“Right, the first PhD candidate at UM in 1977 was one of mine: Peter Cuypers. I also supervised him together with Wim Hermens.”

“We were located at the biomedical centre, a small wooden building, and you knew everyone. Every morning around 10.00 we drank coffee in the hallway with the staff and PhD candidates. That was a time when you could ask questions, but there were also a lot of laughs.”

“I brought that coffee time with me from Leiden, because that informal contact is terribly important.

Because there was no place for it, we did it in the hallway—until the Executive Board found out and banned it for safety reasons. This had an adverse effect on the atmosphere in the department.”

“When we weren’t allowed to sit in the hallway anymore, there was instead a boules court and table tennis. Coen always won everything, that I have to say”, Van Dieijen laughs.

“Well, of course, I carefully chose the things by which I let myself be measured.”

Blood-curdling

After talking about the lab and people back then, Van Dieijen fires off another anecdote. “You have to imagine, everyone who coagulated stood behind a glass container where tubes were hung, to see how long it took the blood to coagulate. But for blood to coagulate, you need to have thromboplastin and that comes from the brain. So in the freezer of the lab was a box that said ‘brains Hemker’. I’ll never forget how the brains of my supervisor were proverbially kept in the freezer. It was a fun time.”

Coattails

Halfway through the PhD programme, Van Dieijen realised that she did not want to do fundamental scientific research her whole life. “I went to talk to Coen about what the possibilities were. He was quite wellknown in the world of clinical chemistry. At that time, you didn’t come into that world if you didn’t ride on someone’s coattails. My coattails belonged to Coen.”

“And it also helped that you had earned your PhD”, he adds.

“I hardly knew that that discipline existed. Fortunately, with Coens’s help I was able to begin in Heerlen, and I ultimately became the first female professor of Clinical Chemistry.”

“You weren’t my first female PhD candidate; that I’d had in Leiden.” >> 17 June 2017 / UMagazine

We researchers are always kind of mavericks

expertise. At one point, my father wanted to continue studying, but because he had no secondary school, he couldn’t. When he was 50, he did MO biology and when ten years later MO-B equivalents were given to candidates, he said: ‘I’m going to do a doctoraal.’ At 65, he earned his doctoraal degree and then he stood by me on the doorstep: ‘I want to get a PhD.’ When he was 70, he earned his PhD with me.”

Exploration ship

“Indeed, but women in science could be counted on one hand at the time. Now almost 60% of the PhD candidates in biomedical sciences are female, also in my discipline.”

Like father like son

For the occasion, Van Dieijen brought along her photo album of the PhD defence, which is looked through with pleasure. “At home it’s in the safe; everything else can burn, but not this album.” Old acquaintances are passed by, until Hemker notes, “What’s my father doing here?”

“This picture was taken out back in our garden when we had a pig on a spit with the entire department. Your father was there, too. He always came to the department outings, a nice man.”

“Well, it must not have been your father”, Hemker says with twinkling eyes. “He had inherited a microscope, and after various evening courses, because he had only gone to technical school, he founded the Dutch association for microscopy. At our home, the bacteria hunters—Koch, Ehrlich and Pasteur—had the same status as famous footballers, meaning that they were talked about with great enthusiasm but little 18 UMagazine / June 2017

Though after having been rector from 1982 to 1985, Hemker was glad that he could devote himself entirely to research again, Van Dieijen has now, as president of MUMC +, clearly chosen administration.

“Yes, recently I completely stopped my academic work and I no longer supervise PhD candidates. It wasn’t really possible to combine it all. I think that’s unfortunate, because there’s nothing more beautiful than to see someone grow in his or her research and to guide him or her in it.”

“I never doubted that Marja would end up where she wanted to go; that was clear from the start.”

“But what it was ... I was a clinical chemist for years and was head of the laboratory. Then, when there was a vacancy for a professor, I thought ‘I’ve got the credentials, why not try it?’. Sometimes steps logically follow one another, and it’s also a matter of luck. I like administration.”

“I find administration boring; research is much more interesting. We researchers are always kind of mavericks. I liked to talk about my department as an exploration ship and whether it moored in Leiden and Maastricht, it didn’t matter much. I still have one PhD candidate, two postdocs and last month I submitted my latest patent. In total, I supervised more than 70 PhDs and about 10 of them have become professors, one of which is Marja. I’m proud of that.” <<

Awards

/ A skill for life /

Professor of Transmural Cardiology Ton Gorgels / Medical student Ali Ghossein 19 February June 2017 / UMagazine

Text Britta Wielaard Photography Philip Driessen

Every year, between 7,000 and 8,000 people are resuscitated in the Netherlands after a cardiac arrest outside the hospital. The first six minutes are crucial. The sooner you start with heart massage the better, and the more people who learn this skill, the greater the chance of survival.

With this in mind, Ton Gorgels, professor of Transmural Cardiology, together with Petra Schuffelen, founded the QRS Taskforce in Maastricht ten years ago.

What has been achieved?

A conversation with Ton Gorgels and the current president of the taskforce, medical student Ali Ghossein.

“With cardiac arrest, a lot is said about the crucial first six minutes”, explains Ali Ghossein. “But if you really want a good chance of survival, then citizens must start giving heart massage and defibrillation within two minutes.” That is often well before the ambulance arrives, so it is important that there are bystanders who can perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

“The solution to the problem of cardiac arrest isn’t just medical”, begins Ton Gorgels. “Medically, the solution is simple, namely resuscitation. Giving chest compressions, respiration and defibrillation isn’t complicated.

The biggest challenge is social. You need to make sure that people outside the hospital can resuscitate, that you can quickly mobilise those people and that there are AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillators) nearby.”

Pupils learn CPR

Ensuring that there are enough people in Limburg to resuscitate formed the basis for the creation of the QRS Taskforce ten years ago. The taskforce is named after the peaks (QRS) of the heartbeats on the electrocardiogram, but the name is also an abbreviation for Qualitative Resuscitation by Students. If you employ medical students as CPR instructors, you can considerably increase the number of people who can resuscitate, thought Ton Gorgels and Registered Nurse and jurist Petra Schuffelen. By using them to teach pupils CPR, you give a whole new generation a skill for life. But back then, they would not have dared to dream that this idea would grow into a large national organisation more than ten years later. “You often know where these things begin, but not how they end up”, laughs Gorgels.

Ghossein got involved in the organisation in 2010.

When he saw a QRS Taskforce ad to become a CPR instructor, he responded immediately. “When I was a small child, I came to the Netherlands as a refugee from Lebanon. During the holidays, we visited family in Lebanon and I experienced the war first hand. That’s why I wanted to be a doctor, so that I can help in urgent situations. And that’s also why the Maastricht QRS Taskforce appealed to me.

Before becoming president, I was a CPR instructor for a year and a half. Every once in a while there would be student that would start to cry during the introduction of the lesson. When I asked about it, it would often turn out that someone in their personal circle experienced a cardiac arrest. Most of the time these students would still stay and watch, but they would find it hard to perform the actions themselves.”

20 UMagazine / June 2017

Ali Ghossein (1989) completed his basic medical training in July 2017.

He has been president of the Maastricht QRS Taskforce for six years and has been the president of the national QRS Taskforce for the last two years.

Ton Gorgels (1948) studied medicine in Nijmegen. Until 2013, he was professor of Transmural Cardiology at Maastricht University. He is currently working as a cardiologist at the Maastricht Reinaert Clinic.

More instructors needed

When the Taskforce began in 2006, there were about ten medical students teaching a number of classes at a couple of secondary schools. “Since 2011, we’ve been putting a lot of effort into to the professionalisation and expansion of the organisation, and that’s been a success. Now, we’re an official foundation with a board and about 150 instructors who reach more than 10,000 pupils annually—a reason for Maastricht University to give us the Student Prize in 2012.

The QRS Taskforce has now expanded into other cities.

We’re currently also in Groningen, Utrecht, Nijmegen and Leiden”, says a proud Ghossein.

“We’ve achieved a lot in ten years”, says Gorgels. “This is especially true of all those students who have picked this up with so much enthusiasm. But we have to keep looking ahead. We’re now noticing that we’re bumping up against the limits of our capacity. We can maybe train another 100 students, but then we still don’t have enough student CPR instructors for all of Limburg. Therefore, we’re investigating whether we can get CPR training structurally embedded, for example, by asking teachers to train as instructors.”

Continuity

In addition, the taskforce also wants more financial continuity. Gorgels: “So far, we’ve always been dependent on donors and project funding. Together with the Health Foundation Limburg, we’re now looking at whether to approach problem owners like insurance companies. Insurance companies now only pay for professional care, in this case the ambulance, but not for the very important help of a citizen who can perform CPR on the spot. We want to be able to organise this structurally, not only in cooperation with health insurers, but also with governments and schools.”

All these efforts are also beginning to really pay off.

“Not so long ago, we heard that a pupil’s mother went into cardiac arrest three weeks after a lesson from our taskforce”, says Gorgels. “That boy then worked with his father, who was a company emergency response worker, to perform CPR until the ambulance arrived.

The mother survived and was able to return home two weeks later. She’s doing well now. Many people who are resuscitated can go on to lead a healthy life. That’s of course what you do it for.” <<

We reach more than 10,000 pupils annually.

21 June 2017 / UMagazine

Spread

At UM the combination of research and entrepreneurship is greatly stimulated. Thus, four researchers from MERLN, the Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine, founded 4 Blue Cells. With the idea ‘let your cells tell your story’, they create made-toorder personal and artistic images of someone’s blood cells, hair cells or fingerprints. For example, they created this image that a man wanted to surprise his wife with on their 40th wedding anniversary. The image is of his and her red blood cells over which salt crystals had been sprinkled for aesthetic effect and because she loves to eat salt.

Curious about the creators of this concept and the many possibilities? Then check out the interview at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl or visit www.4bluecells.com.

Photography 4 Blue Cells

Where science meets art 22 UMagazine / June 2017

23 June 2017 / UMagazine

Discussion

/ 25 years of the Maastricht Treaty: party or hangover? /

24 UMagazine / June 2017

The signing of the Maastricht Treaty marked the first step towards the establishment of the European Union (EU) as we know it today. Now, 25 years later, it is time to take stock. Has the EU lived up to expectations?

A summary of the views of five UM professors (fully published online) on an institute under fire.

The full text of the interviews can be found at: webmagazine.maastrichtuniversity.nl

Sophie Vanhoonacker, professor of Administrative Governance and holder of the Jean Monnet chair

Text Annelotte Huiskes and Femke Kools Photography Harry Heuts and UM archive

European diplomatic service emerged in Brussels and took off after the Lisbon Treaty of December 2009.

Today, there’s even a kind of foreign minister, the post currently held by Federica Mogherini, and the EU has foreign missions in over 140 countries. These are all developments that followed from the Maastricht Treaty.

Questions of security and defence have really been left to NATO. In that sense, it is a bit of a hangover after 25 years. We’ve had a quarter of a century to come to terms with the end of the Cold War and waning interest from the US, but still we’ve continued to lean heavily on America. The advantage of having the Americans on board was that they were the dominant country because they covered most of the NATO budget; they pulled the strings and managed to keep everyone at the table. The three main European players, Germany, France and Britain, were never able to agree on security policy. France and Germany wanted to do more within the EU, whereas the Brits wanted it to fall under NATO. At least Brexit means that they won’t be putting the brakes on the EU anymore, so that may actually boost cooperation.” >>

“One of the treaty’s achievements was that, besides the euro, it marked the start of the development of a common foreign and security policy. Until then, cooperation had been limited, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall it became a hot topic. The idea of a unified Europe brought with it a great deal of uncertainty.

Since the end of the Second World War, there had been a stable system with two blocs that balanced each other out: East and West, separated by the Iron Curtain. Then the curtain fell and the question was, ‘Will Eastern and Central Europe remain stable?’.

Yugoslavia fell apart, civil war was raging. And so, during the treaty negotiations, foreign and security policy was an important theme. For the first time in European history, steps were taken towards a common policy, led by France and Germany. A fledgling 25 June 2017 / UMagazine

Claes: “And where the European institutions want to achieve all sorts of things, it’s the member states that hold them back and then say ‘Europe is doing nothing’.

The member states are constantly blocking initiatives and yet the institutions get the blame. National politicians ought to be more honest about this, but it would mean delivering messages that wouldn’t win them any votes. The alternative for Europe is to go back to the nation state; just look at Brexit. More and more people are calling for that in the Netherlands, too, but the problems we face – migration, the environment – are ones that require cooperation. It’s an illusion that you could deal with the problems of our time by building a wall or becoming more inward-looking. But that’s a message politicians don’t want to have to sell, which sometimes makes me despondent. Of course, the EU needs constant improvement. I’m not saying the EU as it is today is ideal, but it’s clear to me that there needs to be an EU.” Claes: “It’s in crisis situations and on very sensitive topics that things can go wrong, because decisions have to be made by consensus. That’s difficult these days because a compromise is no longer seen as a victory, but rather as a kind of loss. You didn’t get your way. That’s something we’re seeing in national politics, too, not only at the European level. In a compromise, you take into account the interests of others you’re not necessarily in agreement with. But nowadays, the majority just wants what the majority wants and it’s no longer about getting the best for everyone. That’s a change in the contemporary conception of democracy, and it’s magnified at the European level. Europe is facing a crisis, but it’s primarily a crisis of democracy, of politics. Are things really so bad in Europe when you compare it with places like the US?”

Monica Claes, professor of European and Comparative Constitutional Law and Bruno de Witte, professor of European Law. De Witte: “A big part of the problem is the negative way Europe is portrayed. To give a recent example: the perpetrator of the attack in Berlin travelled through Europe via the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and ended up being shot in Italy. What was the response in the media? ‘We have to abolish Schengen – the free movement of people is just not on. It’s outrageous that criminals can move around freely.’ That’s absurd, because what this story actually shows is that the various police forces in Europe work very well together.

It was thanks to that European cooperation, made possible by the Schengen Agreement, among other things, that they managed to find him.”

26 UMagazine / June 2017

De Witte: “And Russia. Many times, the US functions worse than the EU. That’s a political system based on full-frontal opposition, where in recent years you have two camps outright blocking one another. But here, too, the idea of compromise has been lost, and that leads to the election of radical types who no longer have any sense of the public interest, careful governance and the role of the US in the world. That someone like Trump can be elected as president shows, I think, that the political system is not working. Could his presidency lead to another crisis, and thus problems for the EU? We’re now seeing the consequences of his election in terms of defence policy; people are talking about more far-reaching cooperation in this area.

Incidentally, cooperation on defence was another thing the Maastricht Treaty initiated, very modestly, but still.

Looking back, it was definitely the most important treaty in the history of European integration.”

Luc Soete, professor of International Economic Relations and president of the Research, Innovation and Science Policy Experts (RISE) group at the European Commission.

“It’s worth celebrating that 25 years ago we took a big step towards further economic and monetary integration. I see that as a positive development which was scuppered by the referendum in 2005, when the Netherlands and France said ‘no’ to the European constitution drawn up during the Convention between 2002 and 2003. I still consider it a political disgrace that the Netherlands didn’t sign; a fault line in the European project. Balkenende and the other Dutch politicians placed no value on it. If the Convention had come through we’d now have had more political integration, not just economic. Take the establishment of a single currency union and the Schengen Agreement, which promotes the mobility of people and goods. All these economic benefits have led not to more political unity, but rather to the opposite. The more prosperity there is, the more people go in search of their own identity – a movement we’re seeing now.

For me, it’s not merely about more or less integration; there are other paths, too. Policies should be made at the level where they’re most effective. Personally, I’m strongly in favour of a European research policy. For me, it’s absurd that, alongside the European Research Council, the member states all still have their own national agencies that do the same thing. And it’s those very agencies that stand in the way of a single European research policy. Every one of these organisations works with tenders, reviews, project proposals, all of which often end up being assessed by the same small coterie of researchers. It’s clear that the process would benefit from economies of scale. Let the ERC take the reins when it comes to European research policy.”

Mathieu Segers, professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration “The biggest problem currently facing Europe is credibility. If anything is important in politics and in European integration, it’s that. At present, the credibility of European integration is under pressure from all sides; in the national democracies of the member states, but also in cross-border European relations and international politics. This gives rise to doubts and paralysis, which in turn only reinforces the credibility problem. The big question is, can we reverse this problematic spiral?

European governments need to show political courage, because that’s what it takes to deliver the message that there’s no black and white template if you want to take Europe seriously. The nation state doesn’t exist in its pure form, but nor does the European federation. The reality is somewhere in between. For example, the coming years will show that Brexit doesn’t exist either.

The outcome of the referendum means the UK can’t remain a full member, but from the point of view of British interests, cutting ties entirely isn’t feasible either. In short, if politicians can’t sell the middle ground, we’ll keep on having these huge credibility problems.

The EU is a project that stands for peace, reconciliation and cooperation. But it’s also the largest attempt ever seen to voluntarily extend a sphere of influence. That’s fantastic in itself. The downside is that an expansion project of that magnitude inevitably arouses suspicion in others. It also requires you to change and adjust your institutions, something Europe has neglected to do over the last 25 years. That was a big mistake. The Maastricht Treaty has never been as important as it is today. We have to return to the genesis of Europe, see where changes are needed to ensure stability in the future. So it’s neither a time for celebration, nor a hangover; it’s time for a quest for inner strength.” <<

the credibility of European integration is under pressure.

27 June 2017 / UMagazine

International

/ Crossborder crime / Do criminal motorcycle gangs make opportune use of the national borders?

One thing is certain: for authorities, the same borders currently function as a literal barrier to being able to respond to this adequately. PhD candidate Kim Geurtjens researches the cross-border nature of criminal motorcycle gangs in the Maas-Rhine Euregio. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want to help raise as many barriers as possible for these biker gangs.â&#x20AC;?

28 UMagazine / June 2017

Text Hans van Vinkeveen Photography Hugo Thomassen

No, she does not ride a motorcycle. Her interest comes from a criminological background, says Kim Geurtjens. On the wall behind her desk hangs a Harley Davidson patch, a club that falls outside of her research. On her shelves are books with many titles like Underworld on wheels, The Bandidos and The Fallen Angel. Geurtjens: “What’s interesting is how such closed criminal organisations, with a code of silence, can show themselves openly and disturb public order.”

These so-called ‘outlaw motorcycle gangs’ (OMGs) are motorcycle clubs that, due to criminal activities, are considered a threat to society and the rule of law. Typically, about 80 per cent of members have a criminal record and are often involved in various illegal markets: from public violence, drug crime and illegal possession of arms to extortion and murder. The names of gangs in the Netherlands are the Hell’s Angels, Bandidos, Satudarah and No Surrender. In Belgium, the Outlaws are also active, and Gremium can be added to that list for Germany.

Ideal operations base

Geurtjens’s research focuses on the cross-border nature of the criminal activities of OMGs. This is an assumption. She is investigating whether or not these biker gangs actually make advantageous use of the national borders. There are indications of that. For example, a chapter of Bandidos was recently established in the border town of Vaals in Belgium. “The question is whether the establishment of this OMG in a border region is incidental, because it’s beneficial for membership recruitment, for instance. Or is this chosen consciously to help with committing crimes, such as the transport and delivery of drugs? How big this problem is, is yet unknown.”

In the first year of research, Geurtjens conducted a literature search, a media analysis and exploratory discussions about the OMGs with government agencies in the Euregio. “This establishes the general perception of the biker gangs. In 2004, Hell’s Angels were murdered in Dutch Limburg. And more recently in 2015, weapons were found in a raid on the Bandidos, including a rocket launcher. In Belgian Limburg, members of the Outlaws were killed in 2011. In Germany, this occurs even more frequently. But there’s no accurate understanding of the extent of the crimes.”

Kim Geurtjens (1993) works at the Faculty of Law in the Criminal Law and Criminology department. In 2016, she began her PhD research entitled ‘Research concerning outlaw motorcycle gangs and the integrated cross-border policy in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion’ at the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM), under the supervision of Prof. Hans Nelen and Dr Miet Vanderhallen.

Initiation

What Geurtjens has already noticed is that various OMGs like Satudarah and No Surrender are experiencing huge growth. According to her, this rapid growth has to do with easy access to membership. “The initiation period during which new members prove their loyalty to the club seems less important. It is said that they earn their colours (club patches) because they bring a certain expertise and an interesting network to the club. “In other words, their criminal record works as a CV. But what’s unique is that they have the freedom to quit after the initiation period. And some people do that, which used to be unthinkable.”

Crisis centres

Currently, Geurtjens has more insight into what the national borders mean to authorities. They literally function as a barrier. The reason for this is that the laws of the three countries have not been adequately aligned. For example, Germany and Belgium are behind when it comes to monitoring and management approaches to the OMGs. The Netherlands has more legal room for this. Next to that, Germany is again able to ban clubs based on their Associations Act (Verenigingswet), as was the case with Satudarah in 2015.

Within the regional information centres, security partners such as the government, police and tax offices, exchange information.

Geurtjens intends to focus the research on either a particular OMG, a national border or a specific type of crime, so she can do a crime pattern analysis or social networking analysis. In two years, she wants to have recommendations for a legal framework that is based on the three different national laws. “I try to identify what’s legally possible when it comes to collaboration.” She also wants to help improve the functioning of the current Euregional information centres. “And I would like to further develop and expand on the legalities of a Euregional barrier model. This type of model has been used by the Dutch government for a number of years to raise as many obstacles as possible for OMGs. For example, club life is hampered by refusing licenses, restricting restaurants and catering, or prohibiting ride outs.”

Their criminal record works as a CV.

Centre of expertise

Geurtjens benefits greatly from being a PhD candidate at the interdisciplinary centre of expertise ITEM (Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross border cooperation and Mobility). All of the researchers are involved in cross-border issues such as pension law, social security, migration law and, in her case, security.

“It’s an ideal environment for cross-border research.

There’s a lot of information exchange from each person’s own discipline. That’s how you learn from one another. And sometimes the PhD candidates work together. For example, we recently wrote a collection of articles about the refugee crisis with contributions from our own area of interest.” <<

29 June 2017 / UMagazine

Research and society

/ A contrast mam delivers significan images /

Radiologist Marc Lobbes

30 UMagazine / June 2017

Text Graziella Runchina Photography Loraine Bodewes

mmogram ntly better The crown jewel with which Maastricht UMC+ distinguishes itself from other hospitals is the Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM), also known as contrast mammography. “It’s a technique in which we do a mammogram after administering contrast fluid. This type of mammogram provides significantly better diagnostic results than the traditional mammogram, which allows radiologists to more accurately determine whether or not breast cancer is present”, Lobbes explains. Maastricht UMC+ was the first hospital in the Netherlands to use this innovative method. Thanks to this relatively new technique, a patient’s anxiety can be eliminated faster, resulting in valuable time savings. Lobbes: “This allows us to determine, with almost 100 per cent accuracy, that someone doesn’t have a tumour if the CESM scan fails to show any abnormalities. There’s no need to schedule additional procedures or unnecessary follow-ups.”

Distress and uncertainty

Not all women who come to Maastricht UMC+ for a mammogram because of a suspicious lump in their breast are examined using this new technique, Lobbes explains. Although the method is safe, some patients may have an allergic reaction to the contrast fluid.

“So far, we’re using this examination method almost exclusively with women referred to us from the breast cancer population screening because of a suspected malignancy. That’s about 250 women per year.

A referral from the population screening often causes a lot of distress and uncertainty that later proves to be unnecessary”, says Lobbes. “To prevent this, it’s important to provide a final diagnosis as quickly and reliably as possible. Contrast mammography contributes significantly to this.”

Radiologist Marc Lobbes is a specialist in breast radiology. While still training with internationally renowned professor Carla Boetes, from one moment to the next he became, as a 34-year-old doctor, responsible for the mammography department at Maastricht UMC+ when she died in 2011. Six years later, the mammography department of Maastricht UMC+, thanks to Lobbes and the team of breast specialists, is considered highly advanced in the detection of breast cancer.

According to the radiologist, almost three-quarters of the women who come to Maastricht UMC+ through the population screening don’t appear to have breast cancer but a harmless abnormality. There are plans to also use contrast mammography in the near future for (often young) women with excessive and dense glandular tissue. “With this group, an ordinary mammogram doesn’t always provide a definitive diagnosis.” >> 31 June 2017 / UMagazine

MRI technology

With the women who are not yet eligible for a contrast mammogram, Maastricht UMC+ also uses MRI imaging. “That’s the legacy of Professor Carla Boetes from whom I learned this specialty”, says Lobbes. “She was a strong advocate of using an MRI. Trained by her, I look at MRI images in a very specific way, not only by detecting but also by primarily interpreting what I see. According to Carla, I was a natural at mammography. I share her opinion that a good radiologist not only sees if an image contains an abnormality, but also succeeds in placing it in a broader context, as multiple specialties are involved in breast cancer care.”

Trust

I look at MRI images in a very specific way.

32 UMagazine / June 2017

The day Lobbes heard that his mentor and role model had died, he still remembers in detail. “On Friday afternoon, she had wished everyone a nice weekend, and when I got to my desk on Monday, there was the shocking news of her death. I was still working toward a specialisation to become a mammogram radiologist and hadn’t graduated yet. I felt unsure.

How should I proceed? What would be expected of me? Partly because of the trust I received from our current department head, Joachim Wildberger, I quickly grew into my new role as a staff member.”

Greater recognition

Carla Boetes was recruited to Maastricht UMC+ a few years before her death, to bring greater recognition to the mammography department. Lobbes was the first to be able to intern with her. “Carla was an extremely friendly person with whom I immediately clicked. I saw it as a huge privilege to be able to tag along with and observe someone of that calibre every day.”

Marc Lobbes (1977) studied medicine at Maastricht University.

He got his PhD in 2009 on biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. Since 2003, he has been working at the Maastricht UMC+ Department of Radiology, and has been head of the breast radiology team since 2011.

Suspicious lymph nodes

Lobbes and his colleagues are now working on a study that focuses on the application of MRI without administering contrast agents, in order to make the research available for the national screening. “Another development resulting from this is that we’re increasingly using the PET-MRI scanner to diagnose suspicious lymph nodes in the underarm. The purpose of this is to accurately determine the nature of the abnormality in the underarm and possibly prevent an additional surgery for a woman with breast cancer. The main advantage is that we don’t need to unnecessarily remove all of the lymph nodes, which can prevent complications in the patient’s arm and shoulder.”

Although Lobbes does not come from a family of physicians—his father was a bank worker, his mother housewife—he knew he wanted to become a doctor by the time he was 15. He initially planned to become a neurologist, and he realised after he had already been studying neurology for several months, that his heart was more in radiology. “This proved to be the right choice, and I’m conscious of that every day.” <<

Off the job

/ I definitely have a bond with my fish /

Professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law Michael Faure

33 June 2017 / UMagazine

Text Jolien Linssen Photography Paul van der Veer

If you enter the house of Michael Faure, professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law, you will find aquariums in virtually every room, kitchen and even bathroom. He owns more than thirty of these microcosms that are filled with exotic fish, among other things. What started as a hobby at the age of fourteen has clearly gotten out of hand. For Michael Faure, being an aquarist is a way of life.

“Last weekend, my nine-year old son, Tonny, asked how many fish we actually have”, he says. “He tried to count them, but we ended up guessing. It must be at least a few hundred.” Faure’s specialty, so to say, is African cichlids that only come from Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. These are so-called mouthbrooders, meaning that the female incubates fertilised eggs in her mouth for three or four weeks, during which she is not able to eat. It is a process which continues to fascinate Faure, but there is more. “These fish have magnificent colours and an interesting character”, he says. “It’s compelling to see how they interact; males, for instance, can be quite aggressive towards each other. Besides, they know me pretty well.”

One might wonder whether it is possible to bond with a fish. The answer, according to Faure, is a firm yes. “When I or one of my family members approach the aquarium, the fish will swim to the surface of the water”, he explains. “Yet, when there are strangers around, they’ll hide out of fear. The bigger the fish, 34 UMagazine / June 2017

of course, the easier it is to feel a connection. My nine giraffe catfish eat right out of my hand and really look at me, so that’s a very personal experience. They’re quite big - they can grow up to eighty centimeters long - and intelligent animals. I love them.”

Arnold, the snapping turtle

Faure’s passion for all sorts of water dwellers started out rather conventionally, with the good old goldfish. He soon became bored, however, and opted for saltwater fish instead. Not long after that, he discovered the fun of keeping cichlids and never looked back. As a student in Antwerp, he met his now longtime friend, Flor, at the shop where he used to buy his fish. “Together, we became members of the Belgian Cichlid Association”, Faure recalls. “It was the seventies, and once a month the members met up in a smoky bar for, let’s say, a presentation. It’s a lot of fun to pursue your hobby with friends.” When he met his then-colleague Marc Daenen at Maastricht University, it was the beginning of a new chapter.

Michael Faure (1958) is professor of Comparative and International Environmental Law and academic director of the Institute for Transnational Legal Research (METRO) at Maastricht University.

He is also academic director of the Ius Commune Research School and of the European Doctorate in Law and Economics (EDLE) programme. In addition, he is a member of the board of directors of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL). He has worked as an attorney for Van Goethem Law in Antwerp since 1982. Since 2008, he has been professor of Comparative Private Law and Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

“As Marc is quite exotic himself, he also likes exotic animals”, Faure laughs. “A couple of years ago he asked me to adopt Arnold, a snapping turtle that’s 1.20 metres long and who’s named after Arnold Schwarzenegger - because, just like Schwarzenegger, Arnold the turtle has huge arms. And he’s a real bastard, I can tell you. The only thing he wants to do is attack and bite. But he can’t help it; it’s in his DNA.” Long story short: Faure decided to adopt Arnold, had a customised aquarium built for him - with a very solid cover - and Arnold has since been perfectly happy, as well as aggressive.

A family affair

The Faure home also harbours a friendlier turtle - seven of them, to be precise. Faure: “These softshell turtles are the opposite of Arnold. They have a cute, intelligent little snout. As they’re very sensitive and need good care, we always take them with us on holiday. In addition, we have axolotls, also known as Mexican salamanders, who are living in an aquarium on the dinner

table and in aquariums in the bathroom.” It is as clear as day that the whole family is involved, and enjoying it. Especially Faure’s son, Tonny, is enthusiastic. “At the moment, we’re trying to breed axolotls,” Faure says.

“Once you have wonderful animals like these, you get a kick out of producing offspring.”

The underwater world surrounding him is the perfect atmosphere for Faure to work in. “I read on the porch, with five aquariums next to me and classical music in the background”, he says. “Very pleasant, and it gives me the opportunity to keep an eye on the fish.” As an aquarist, you are first and foremost an observer, which is also part of Faure’s job as a professor of environmental law. “I regularly visit natural sites to study, for example, how they are managed. Other jurists might be overwhelmed when they hear about the pH levels of water, or its acidity or chemistry, but I’m not. That’s where my hobby comes in very handy.” <<

35 June 2017 / UMagazine

“I’m naturally a doubter, but in my job search, I realised that I had been thinking secretly for a long time: ‘Working in a museum seems like it would be the most fun.’” Eva van Diggelen, Arts and Culture alum, has been working since 2015 as a curator at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, where she curates very diverse exhibitions. That broad orientation was also in her study programme and has been a common thread throughout her life.

/ Wandering around and getting lost in museums / Text Annelotte Huiskes Photography Rafaël Philippen

She partly developed a love for museums and art at home. During holidays in Italy, every other day was spent doing something involving art and culture; the other day was for relaxing. “I saw a lot of things and enjoyed wandering around all of those museums.

I never lost that. I take Fiep, my daughter of three, regularly to exhibitions in the hope that she’ll also become a lover of museums.”

Municipality – Police – Museum

Alumni 36 UMagazine / June 2017

Her career path was not a straight line. “After graduating, I was able to start working at the Maastricht Municipality through my thesis supervisor, Joop de Jong. Of course, it was nice that I could get started right away, but I soon noticed that policy work wasn’t for me.” Then she found work at a project office in Maastricht. “Very nice, but it ended because of budget cuts. Last one in, first one out.”

She moved to Utrecht and found a job with the police. “Again something completely different. Nevertheless, I had a great time there. I worked with a project group that had to implement a

Eva van Diggelen (1979) studied Arts and Culture in Maastricht and has worked as a project secretary at the police and as curator of Museum De Paviljoens, among other things. Since 1 May 2010, Eva has been working at the Kunsthal Rotterdam, first as an assistant curator and since 2015 as a curator.

bulletproof and stitch-free vest throughout the organisation. It was a big task to get the needs of all those different departments and locations aligned. But it was successful, and much of my work experience there helps me in my current work, in which I often deal with many different parties. If you stay faithful to your goal, even when you’re currently doing something different, it’ll all work out.

And I noticed that every work experience, no matter where it is, is valuable.”

Art for a wide audience

It feels like a privilege for her to work in the beautiful Kunsthal building, designed by Rem Koolhaas. “A building that you can easily get lost in as a visitor, but that’s also the intention”, she says smiling.

“In the Kunsthal, a number of exhibitions are always planned next to each other. Come for one, and before you know it you’ll be attending another.” In total, Van Diggelen and her two co-curators organise around 25 exhibitions a year.

Now, the Kunsthal is not a museum in the classic sense of the word.

“We don’t have our own collection, so we always have do it with things from others. And we particularly want to create exhibitions for a wide audience.” This year, for example, she has curated exhibitions on hyperrealism in painting, the 75th anniversary of the Maastunnel, and for this coming summer ‘All you can art’, an international project about art education. “I’m doing this project with David Bade, a well-known Dutch artist, and Tirzo Martha from Curaçao. We’re organising a summer school for young people between 14 and 24 years old at the pre-vocational (VMBO) education level. These young people can’t go to an art academy, because those give professional training to people who have finished secondary school (HBO level). For the really talented youngsters, we try to bridge the gap.”

Storytelling

That broad orientation remains the common thread that runs throughout her life. That’s why, after finishing secondary school in 1998, she also chose the Arts and Culture programme in Maastricht instead of a programme in art history. “And I’ve never regretted that.

The study combined so many things with each other: history, culture, philosophy, economics and science. How all these things were combined and that none of them actually stands alone, I found very interesting, also because art and culture were important components.”

She looks back on her student time in Maastricht very fondly. She was a member of the student association Saurus and lived in a cosy student house, where she also got to know her husband with whom she now has two daughters. In practice, she found the PBL education difficult. “A lot of activity was expected, and I didn’t always meet those expectations. Being individually responsible for the preparation of a question and the learning objectives that need to be answered, I think is very valuable now. In my work, I still more or less use this way of working. Here, too, it’s about questions like: ‘What story do you want to tell in an exhibition?’. There are subthemes underlying this, and what you want to do with these in order to shine a spotlight on the higher goal of the exhibition.”

Going deeper

On the question of what her career will look like ten years, she replies, “The next step I think would be to go to a museum with its own collection. I think the many subjects here are great for now, but I can imagine that over a number of years I would like more space for advanced research. But in the next ten years I won’t be finished here.” <<

Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni 37 June 2017 / UMagazine

Alumni

/ Balance between professional and personal life is important / Eric Hageman was the highest financial man at KPN and a front runner to lead the largest telecom company in the Netherlands.

However, the economist educated in Maastricht and London chose instead for his family and for a completely different career step. Now, he is CFO at Chime Communications in London.

Text Jos Cortenraad Photography Eric Hageman There were two times in his life when Eric Hageman stepped on the brakes. The first time was in 2004, when he was travelling the world for the British branch of Deutsche Bank as a banker. “It was Christmas. I was with my wife Cristina and our daughter of one and a half visiting my parents in Meerssen, South Limburg. Suddenly, I realised that it was only my fourth day off of that year. I was always on the road, always at work. I saw my family on Saturdays and that was about it. Cristina was pregnant with our second daughter. I thought, ‘this has to change’.”

Managing

The wheel keeps spinning. Half a year later, the Hageman family moves from London to the Netherlands where Eric makes a new start at KPN in a completely different world. “From banking to telecom.

That seems like a strange turn, but I was very familiar with KPN. They were one of our biggest customers and I had a good relationship with then CEO Ad Scheepbouwer and his CFO. I also saw it as a big step towards my ultimate goal—managing a business. I had already said that when I began studying at the Maastricht University Faculty of Economics in 1989, ‘I want to run a business someday’.”

38 UMagazine / June 2017

Eric Hageman (1970) studied Economics at Maastricht University and earned an MBA in London. He has worked for Deutsche Bank, KPN, Telecity and, since 2016, as CFO at Chime.

Foundation

Eric Hageman grew up in Maastricht and is the first in his family who could attend university. He preferred to go to Rotterdam, but due to the lottery allocation of study places, it turned out different.

“Maastricht was the alternative. Back then not as prestigious as now, but afterwards I was very happy that I walked into Problem-Based Learning. As a manager, you’re in fact constantly engaged in a group of people making decisions and solving problems. Maastricht was the perfect foundation.”

After graduating in 1995, Eric Hageman goes to London to work as a trainee for various banks. He quickly realises that an MBA is a prerequisite for climbing his way to the top. “For two years, I studied full time again at the London Business School. A financial hit, yes, but my wife worked and through the bonus system I was able to build some savings. After the graduation, I could have my choice.”

The career at KPN goes entirely according to plan. Following his debut as Head of Investor Relations and Head of M&A, Eric Hageman moves on to the mobile branch where he becomes CFO. He then becomes CEO in charge of the Belgian KPN subsidiary BASE. The move in 2012 to KPN’s headquarters in The Hague as CFO seems to be simply the last step towards the big job: the boss at KPN.

Brakes

But it goes differently. In the fall of 2013, the media reports the sudden departure of Eric Hageman. He did not want to comment on it much then. This turns out to be the second time he steps on the brakes. “Something didn’t feel right. Managing at this level is a top sport, 24 hours a day. Once again, I realised that I seldom saw my wife and now three daughters and was failing them. I wanted to work for a smaller company. Really making a difference and doing things differently—that’s difficult in a big company. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go, but it was time for a new step.”

Stronger

After a career in London and the Netherlands, the native ‘Maastrichtenaar’ lands a financial position in 2014 at Telecity, an IT company and data centre operator. Since last year, the job of CFO at Chime has been added to his CV. “Yes, a British company in sports marketing and advertising. Like Telecity, relatively small on the world market. That’s just what I like, to make that type of business stronger and expand. With Telecity we accomplished it; we managed to sell the company for 2.6 billion pounds. With Chime, we’re on the right track.”

Does Eric Hageman still want to lead that big company? The answer keeps all options open. “Who knows. At the moment, our life is in balance. I commute between London and Barcelona, Cristina has set up a great company in baby clothing with her sister, our daughters feel at home in Spain. This is good for now.” <<

Visit us at www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/alumni

Sabbatical

A rigorous decision follows. Not only does Eric Hageman take a sabbatical that lasts nine months, but he also moves the family to Barcelona. “Cristina was born and raised there. We got to know each other during a vacation in 1987 when I was still in secondary school. During my studies, Cristina came to Maastricht and we were married. Because of this, I of course didn’t have the usual student experience. After graduating, she came with me to London where we lived and worked for ten years, then back to the Netherlands and Belgium. Now we thought it was time to follow her heart, and so it was Catalonia.”

39 June 2017 / UMagazine

Saudi Aramco supports study in Biobased Materials

Maastricht University is pleased to announce that leading energy and chemicals company Saudi Aramco is supporting a research programme on the Sustainability of Biobased Materials in a circular economy at the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM).

Today’s linear ‘take, make and dispose’ economic model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy, and is reaching its ecological limits. In a circular economy, however, resources are regenerated in the bio-cycle or recovered and restored in the technical cycle. This is an attractive and viable alternative economic model that businesses have already started exploring.

Biobased materials have great potential to boost the transition to a circular economy due to renewable feedstock use and waste prevention strategies. However, biobased materials are not intrinsically sustainable. While a framework is already in place for assessing the sustainability of biomass and biofuels, there are only limited studies available on the sustainability of biobased materials.

With the generous donation, Maastricht University is able to establish a professorship that will focus on the Sustainability of Biobased Materials by supervising and initiating research projects in this relatively new domain. The chair holder will simultaneously introduce the research expertise in the curriculum of the Biobased Materials programme and will guide bachelor’s and master’s students in their research.

The University Fund Limburg/SWOL introduced Saudi Aramco to the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials and is very pleased to have been leading in the formation of this partnership, a collaboration that will prove to be beneficial to both partners.

Maastricht University is confident that this will be the start of a long-lasting relationship with Saudi Aramco. <<

40 UMagazine / June 2017

Scholarships from Regio Venlo

Seven scholarships have already been granted by Regio Venlo.

As part of the campus development, nine municipalities, which together form Regio Venlo, joined forces to encourage young talent to stay in the region. “Instead of attracting people and businesses to this region, it is a more obvious choice to allow those who grew up here to develop here. If they leave the nest after their studies, we hope that they’ll be able to promote this region as an ambassador,” says proponent of this initiative, Kees van Rooij, mayor of the municipality of Horst aan de Maas.

The scholarships are an instrument to promote the education programmes in health, nutrition and logistics. The provision of internships and applied research has shown that intensive cooperation has a clear added value for all: the students, the companies and Campus Venlo. “With the scholarships, we actually build a bridge between SMEs and Regio Venlo. And this is only the beginning!”, says Van Rooij.

Brightbox in Villa Flora and Scelta Mushrooms are examples of successful regional collaboration between business and research and education. “We hope these good examples are followed.” <<

The 2016-2017 scholarship recipients with the mayor van Rooij and the representatives of the SWOL

Annual alumni campaign

On 8 June, the University Fund Limburg kicked off its annual fundraising campaign among alumni. Every year, more and more alumni decide to support their alma mater financially with contributions great and small. Since the start of our annual campaigns back in 2010, more than 2,000 alumni have raised over €100,000 for research projects at the university. The contributions made by our alumni are transferred to the Alumni Fund that is managed by a committee of alumni donors.

This year, our annual campaign focusses on the theme ‘Maastricht Centraal’. Whether long ago or fairly recently, Maastricht played a central role in the lives of all our alumni.

Today, as a leading university, Maastricht continues to play a central role in learning and education locally, in the Euregion, nationally and internationally. To maintain our world-class status, we hope that we can count on the support of our graduates around the world. <<

Successful University Dinner

On 19 April, the annual Maastricht University Dinner took place. The dinner, at the Gouvernement aan de Maas, brings together Maastricht University with Limburg and companies and institutions in the South of the Netherlands that wholeheartedly support and cooperate with the university.

The dinner is hosted by the University Fund Limburg/SWOL, and offers opportunities for fundraising in addition to an important gathering place. Two hundred guests sat together around the tables. The honoured guest and speaker was Ralph Hamers, CEO of the ING Group. Due to his position at a bank with many clients in Limburg and the South-East of the Netherlands, Hamers has a good insight into the economic situation of the region. He raised the question to the attendees, ‘Is Limburg agile enough?’.

Most of the economic and social thermometres are positive to very positive when it comes to Limburg. However, that is not a reason to lean back, but rather to keep innovating. Technological developments go so fast that those who are not already ahead

of the pack in reality are lagging behind.

You actually have to innovate when it is going well. Hamers’s key piece of advice for the countless partners in the region was: collaborate, as well as share and bundle knowledge. <<

Speaker at the University Dinner Ralph Hammers, CEO of ING Group

The logos of partners of the University Fund Limburg/SWOL are shown below. These respected companies and funds are important supporters of research and education. The University Fund Limburg is grateful to its partners for their commitment to Maastricht University

41 June 2017 / UMagazine

News Energise Europe

In 30 European countries, researchers from ICIS, Maastricht University’s academic institute for sustainable development, will collaborate with their European research partners on a project that will bring about a sustainable change in people’s energy consumption. The project is called ENERGISE: European Network for Research, Good Practice and Innovation for Sustainable Energy. The researchers aim to gather information on about 1,000 projects and initiatives that will inspire the design and implementation of 16 Living Labs in 8 countries in 2018. These labs are intended to investigate potential influences on individual and collective energy consumption. Insights gained at the Living Labs will form a cornerstone for the development and evaluation of future energy consumption initiatives across Europe. The ENERGISE consortium consists of partners from Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. <<

Maastricht Science Progamme researchers and students develop novel assay for bacterial detection

Researchers and students of the Maastricht Science Progamme published an article in ACS Infectious Diseases about their development of a novel, low-cost bacterial identification assay. The research team introduced the concept in an earlier publication of ACS Sensors in August last year and have further optimised their sensor, making it possible to distinguish between eight different bacterial species. Moreover, the researchers successfully demonstrated quantifiable bacterial detection in urine.

The most striking features of the newly developed technology are that it is user-friendly, fast and low-cost, which opens the possibility of transforming the biosensor into a handheld application for point-of-care bacterial detection. Portable bacterial assays could be used for a wide range of applications, including the prevention of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), infection diagnosis or the detection of pathogens in food and drinking water. <<

Food as medicine

Dr Alie de Boer, food scientist at the University College Venlo of Maastricht University, recently published an article in the leading International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. Based on comprehensive literature research, she revealed the importance of omega 3 fatty acids and vitamin E in managing chronic inflammatory lung diseases, such as COPD and the autoimmune disease sarcoidosis. Alie de Boer: “There is a prolonged and intense use of medication in this growing group of patients.

As a result, patients are building up resistance and experiencing side effects. The use of food or supplements in combination with the proper medication would be a huge step forward. It really is very promising.” << 42 UMagazine /June 2017

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 • • • •

• •

•

•

•

University College Maastricht (UCM) University College Venlo (UCV) Maastricht Science Programme (MSP) Department of Data Science and Knowledge Engineering (DKE) Department of Biobased Materials (BBM) Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM) International Centre for Integrated assessment and Sustainability (ICIS) Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) Top Institute for Evidence based education Research (TIER)

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 Neuroscience •

• • • • • •

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

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) Institute for Data Science (DTS@UM)

Publisher © Maastricht University Chief Editor Annelotte Huiskes Editorial Board Rianne Letschert (President), Denis Ancion, Teun Dekker, Manon van Engeland, Ad van Iterson, Jos Kievits, Mirjam Oude Egbrink, Alexander Sack, Hildegard Schneider, Jo Wachelder.

Texts Jos Cortenraad, Femke Kools, Annelotte Huiskes, Jolien Linssen, Graziella Runchina, Britta Wielaard, Hans van Vinkeveen.

Photography Loraine Bodewes (p30), Philip Driessen (p19), 4Blue Cells (spread), Harry Heuts (cover), Rafaël Philippen (p7,36), Sacha Ruland (p3), Arjen Schmitz (p4), Hugo Thomassen (p16,28), Paul van der Veer (p12,33) Translations and English editing Casey O’Dell Graphic concept and design Zuiderlicht Maastricht Print Drukkerij Tuijtel, Hardinxveld-Giessendam 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

43 June 2017 / UMagazine

Blow up Want to know which part of Maastricht is zoomed in on? Visit the Facebook page of the UMagazine.

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