PhD

Nicole Georgi: oxygen to repair knee cartilage

Knees, you take them for granted. Until the moment they malfunction and you run the risk of getting an artificial replacement: then you wish you had taken better care of them back in the day. Especially when you are young and learn that your imitation knee might only last 15 years. Nicole Georgi aims to prevent this worst case scenario. For the past four years, she worked on the improvement of cartilage tissue engineering.
PhD

Hester Trompetter: helps to accept Pain

Person has pain, doctor gives medicine, pain is over. If only it were always this simple. Approximately 20% of the population suffers from minor or major chronic pains. For some of them there is only one recipe: learn to live with it. Hester Trompetter helps these people to reclaim quality of life.
PhD

Aditya Iyer monitors clumping of proteins

Proteins do not only make you stronger. In fact, they can make you weaker when they clump together. Science has shown a strong relation between aggregated proteins and Parkinson’s disease. We just don’t know the details of this relation, and what starts this process. Aditya Iyer is on a mission to find out.
PhD

Juan Roman Casado: ‘I listen to the fire’

Facing up to 165 decibels and extreme heat, Juan Roman Casado is on a quest to find the optimal parameters for air, fuel and sound. Aim: the creation of cleaner and more reliable gas turbine combustors.
PhD

Liang Ye, Junwen Luo and Wenlong Chen: China’s got talent

They are talented, have relevant research interests and are eager to learn more. That is why Liang Ye, Junwen Luo and Wenlong Chen were admitted into the Talent & Training China – Netherlands programme in 2011, and were able to start their PhDs in Twente. One year down the road, how are they doing?
PhD

Remi Chandran: manage wildlife crime

Dead elephants for the ivory trade. Lions killed to prove manhood. Bush meat consumption. Wildlife crime is not only very sad for the animals (or plants!) involved and a risk to biodiversity, it also increases the spread of unknown infectious diseases. Remi Chandran is working on a transboundary monitoring system to keep officials as well informed as possible. They can then take appropriate action.
PhD

Silja Eckartz: ‘My thesis is like my home!

Congratulations to Dr. Silja Eckartz. On August 31st, she defended her dissertation successfully! Silja finished a dual PhD at EWI and MB on methods of improving cost estimations and benefits management for IT implementations in networks. She explains how her tools assist in reaching a fair distribution of costs and benefits and, as a bonus, has some advice for PhDs who still have some way to go.
PhD

Alexander Otten: Let’s get a move on!

Having limited movement control, because of brain damage of some sort, affects one’s life severely. It also affects the lives of the people surrounding the patient. There you have it: suffering from brain injuries degrades one into a patient. It means dependence. So just how great is it to solve a piece of the puzzle, to help people become independent again? Alexander Otten knows. He has been working on it for over 2 years.
PhD

Victor de Graaff: the voice of PhD candidates

A bursary system will weaken the position of PhDs as employees, and will harm the continuity of the university. Victor de Graaff opposes its introduction and is determined to make the voice of all PhDs heard: He stands as a candidate for the University Council.