Contestants Breaking Science 2023
A total of 27 candidates are participating in Breaking Science, all doing research at different faculties of Utrecht University. On this page they introduce themselves, in alphabetical order.
Finalists
Iulia Bodnariuc
All the way from Canada, Iulia moved to the Netherlands in 2021 to pursue a PhD. She gets excited solving puzzles and using her creativity to study the world around her. Her research uses very strong magnets to measure atomic details of proteins that everyone makes in their body.
Gabriel Cárdenas
Gabriel is a Peruvian water resources engineer specialized in hydrological modelling and data analysis. He's currently undertaking a PhD at Utrecht University, assessing global water scarcity under drought-heatwave events.
Kulsum Dawoodbhoy
With a Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor and a Masters in Infection and Immunity, Kulsum recently started as a PhD student in the Medical Microbiology department at UMC Utrecht. Here, she will continue to work towards developing solutions for infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Maya Haaker
Maya graduated as a veterinarian for companion animals and is now a PhD candidate at the department of Biomolecular Health Sciences at the faculty of Veterinary medicine. Here she studies the role of (lipid) metabolism of liver cells in the development of liver diseases.
Niklas Hohmann
Niklas is a geoscientist with a background in mathematics. In his PhD, he studies how rocks record information of the Earths history, with a focus on the evolution of life.
Roos Nederstigt
After completing her MSc in pharmaceutical and chemical sciences at the University of the Pacific (USA), Roos joined the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics group at Utrecht University in September of 2021. Her research focuses on the enzymatic regulation of protein S-palmitoylation and combines molecular biology, chemical biology and mass-spectrometry based approaches.
Ann-Sofie Scheike
Ann-Sofie is a veterinarian from Copenhagen, now doing a PhD at Utrecht University working on osteoarthritis. Conducting both in vitro and in vivo research, she is investigating new treatment options for the disease, mainly focusing on equine osteoarthritis models.
Xiaomeng Zhou
Xiaomeng is a second-year PhD student at the department Human Geography and Spatial planning. Before joining Utrecht University, she obtained her masters degree at Wageningen University.
Contestants
Isaac Alpizar Chacon
Isaac has recently gotten his PhD in Computer Science. He is currently a lecturer at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences. His area of research is Computer Science in Education.
Tony Barshini
Tony graduated in constitutional and administrative law at Utrecht University. He is currently conducting research within the research project 'Waardevol Water in een Dynamische Omgeving'. Besides doing research, Tony also has a great passion for providing academic teaching.
Joanna von Berg
Joanna is a postdoctoral researcher in the Princess Maxima Center, where they are looking for DNA mutations that might cause childhood cancer. Before this they did a PhD in the UMC Utrecht, where they studied the differences in DNA between people that had and did not have an ischemic stroke.
Pelle Berkhout
Pelle is a first-year PhD candidate who researches innovation studies throughout the week and dances salsa in the weekends. He's passionate about investigating how governments can use their power to drive innovation that supports societal change and is excited to share that enthusiasm during Breaking Science.
Iulia Bodnariuc
All the way from Canada, Iulia moved to the Netherlands in 2021 to pursue a PhD. She gets excited solving puzzles and using her creativity to study the world around her. Her research uses very strong magnets to measure atomic details of proteins that everyone makes in their body.
Samuel Briones
Samuel is a Chilean PhD Candidate with a background in Social Anthropology and Demography. He's passionate about the aspects of human life that clash with the economic and political systems of our own making.
Gabriel Cárdenas
Gabriel is a Peruvian water resources engineer specialized in hydrological modelling and data analysis. He's currently undertaking a PhD at Utrecht University, assessing global water scarcity under drought-heatwave events.
Sneha Chevuru
Sneha is originally from India. She's a second year PhD candidate at Faculty of Geoscience. She specialized in adaptive water management and her area of interests are in climate change, hydrology, crop production, extremes and nexus.
Kulsum Dawoodbhoy
With a Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor and a Masters in Infection and Immunity, Kulsum recently started as a PhD student in the Medical Microbiology department at UMC Utrecht. Here, she will continue to work towards developing solutions for infections caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Maya Haaker
Maya graduated as a veterinarian for companion animals and is now a PhD candidate at the department of Biomolecular Health Sciences at the faculty of Veterinary medicine. Here she studies the role of (lipid) metabolism of liver cells in the development of liver diseases.
Niklas Hohmann
Niklas is a geoscientist with a background in mathematics. In his PhD, he studies how rocks record information of the Earths history, with a focus on the evolution of life.
Tim Kamsma
Tim is a PhD candidate in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, conducting research based on his own research proposal. He's currently working on neuromorphic (brain-inspired) computing, with a wider interest in functional intelligent materials, to enable a technology enhanced and sustainable future.
Raquel Ledo Doval
Raquel is a biotechnologist with an specialization in Molecular Biology. Her passion for science is what moves her life and career!
Jip Leendertse
Jip is a PhD candidate in the Innovation Studies group. He studies the role of entrepreneurs in sustainability transitions. He is motivated by unravelling the fascinating puzzle that is the result of combining business and sustainability in a newly formed company.
Esther van Leeuwen
Esther is a 4th year PhD student in the Dijkhuizen lab. In the lab she is researching novel therapeutic approaches targeting the immune system after stroke. Her dream is that these treatments help improve the quality of life of stroke patients.
Florence Lucas
Florence Lucas started her PhD last September. Her research focuses on the influence of social-context interventions on self-regulated learning. In particular, this involves looking at individual differences both in self-efficacy and in challenge/threat response.
Eugenio Marinelli
Eugenio is a physicist by training and has converted to computational biology at Hubrecht Institute. From an early age he has been interested in science, seeing it as something mysterious and intriguing.
Roos Nederstigt
After completing her MSc in pharmaceutical and chemical sciences at the University of the Pacific (USA), Roos joined the Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics group at Utrecht University in September of 2021. Her research focuses on the enzymatic regulation of protein S-palmitoylation and combines molecular biology, chemical biology and mass-spectrometry based approaches.
Hanne Oberman
Hanne is a statistician interested in data visualization, interdisciplinarity, and open science.
Ann-Sofie Scheike
Ann-Sofie is a veterinarian from Copenhagen, now doing a PhD at Utrecht University working on osteoarthritis. Conducting both in vitro and in vivo research, she is investigating new treatment options for the disease, mainly focusing on equine osteoarthritis models.
Ineke Smit
Ineke Smit is a PhD candidate on (clinical) gait analysis at the faculty of Veterinary Medicine, department of Clinical Sciences. She focusses on equine lameness (i.e. orthopaedic pain) and standardisation of muscle activity measurements during locomotion.
Maartje Stutvoet
As a young clinician at the paediatric ward, Maartje realised she only got a small glimpse of the broad impact of a disease on a child and its family. Eager to dive further into this and to develop myself scientifically, she started a PhD trajectory at the social paediatrics department.
Ifigeneia Thomopoulou
Ifigeneia is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Science, with a BSc in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and a MSc in Molecular Medicine.
Fleur Wallis
Fleur Wallis received all education at Utrecht University, from the bachelors Chemistry & Biomedical Sciences to the master Regenerative Medicine and Technology with a bioinformatic profile. Since half a year she's working at the Princess Maxima Center as a PhD student in the Kemmeren group, focused on bioinformatic analysis of pediatric tumor samples.
Zexi Xu
Zexi Xu is currently working as a postdoc on the plasma project in group of membrane biochemistry and biophysics at Utrecht University. Prior to Utrecht, she obtained her PhD in membrane biophysics and MSc in materials science and engineering from University of Leeds.
Peiyao Zhang
Peiyao Zhang is a second-year PhD student based at ERCOMER, ISS. Her research focuses on intergenerational relationship, elderly care and well-being of Chinese migrants in the Netherlands.
Xiaomeng Zhou
Xiaomeng is a second-year PhD student at the department Human Geography and Spatial planning. Before joining Utrecht University, she obtained her masters degree at Wageningen University.