More than forty scientists from the Faculty of Science participate in Meet the Professor 2026

Biking to primary schools across the Utrecht region

Droneshot van alle deelnemers van Meet the Professor 2026

What does a researcher actually do? During the eleventh edition of Meet the Professor, nearly three hundred researchers from Utrecht University hopped on their bikes to show primary school students in the Utrecht region exactly that. This year, more than forty researchers from the Faculty of Science participated.

Biologists Jonas Lembrechts and Olivia van der Weiden visited the LEF Kindcentrum in Utrecht. They started with a simple question for the children in the class: when have you ever felt really hot? And did you notice that more in the city, or in a forest?
 

Jonas en Olivia gingen tijdens Meet the Professor 2026 langs bij Kindcentrum LEF
Biologists Jonas Lembrechts and Olivia van der Weiden visited the LEF Kindcentrum in Utrecht.

Designing a liveable city

It was a great way to get the conversation started. Before long, the classroom was full of LEGO as the children began designing their ideal, liveable city. They quickly agreed on plenty of greenery, water, and shady spots. But they also added solar panels, bridges you can walk under, and clever ways to keep the air clean.

Leerlingen bouwden met LEGO een leefbare stad
Using LEGO, the children built their own ideal, livable city.

Listening to plants

The discussion soon turned to plants. Can you actually ‘talk’ to plants? Not really, according to the researchers, but you can learn to listen. For example, by measuring how warm or wet the soil is. These measurements can reveal how the plant is doing and whether it is experiencing stress.

Questions kept coming: Can you actually see a plant grow? (Yes, but very slowly.) Can a plant survive without light? (For a little while, but not for long.) And what’s the biggest plant you’ve ever seen? (A sequoia.)

Door metingen te doen aan planten, kun je kijken wat er met een plant gebeurt en of de plant stress ervaart.
By taking measurements on plants, you can see what happens to a plant and whether it is experiencing stress.

About Meet the Professor
Every spring, Utrecht University researchers visit primary school classes in the region. Professors, lab technicians, teachers, PhD candidates, and students give pupils in grades 6, 7, and 8 a chance to step into the shoes of a researcher, letting the children do research themselves, from interviewing and experimenting to thinking like a scientist. Each year, more than 3300 children gain a realistic view of what science is really like, while researchers get fresh perspectives and new questions to explore in their own work.