Elsje van Bergen

Dr. Elsje van Bergen is an Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Department of Biological Psychology and a Visiting Professor at the University of Oslo (2024-25 academic year). She leads an interdisciplinary research team investigating why neurodevelopmental conditions and educational outcomes run in families, bridging genetics, psychology, psychiatry, education, and public health through the Netherlands Twin Register.

Her academic background includes:

• PhD in Child Development and Education from University of Amsterdam (2013)
• Postdoctoral Fellowship at University of Oxford (2012-2015)
• Bachelor's and Master's in Human Movement Sciences from VU Amsterdam (cum laude)

Van Bergen's research disentangles genetic and environmental influences on learning differences across language, reading, and mathematics, with focus on dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and autism. Her work examines how these conditions relate to mental health and educational outcomes through twin studies, polygenic scores, and large cohorts like Norway's MoBa study.

Her recent publications reveal dominant genetic influences in educational inequality and neurodevelopmental condition comorbidity. Methodologically innovative works leverage polygenic scores to resolve cultural transmission pathways, while meta-analyses quantify parent-offspring resemblance in reading. These studies, published in Nature Human Behaviour and Psychological Science, demonstrate interdisciplinary approaches to gene-environment interplay.

Major recognitions include:

• ERC Starting Grant (2023)
• NWO VIDI Talent Grant (2021)
• Jacobs Foundation Research Fellowship (2020)
• NWO Rubicon (2012) and VENI (2016) Talent Grants
• Early-career awards from Society for Scientific Study of Reading, Association for Psychological Science, and Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences
• Fellow of Young Academy of Europe (2019)

She mentors Master's and PhD students while securing major grants to investigate intergenerational educational cycles. Her ERC-funded project examines how parental genotypes influence offspring education through dynastic social processes. She co-leads Amsterdam Young Academy initiatives supporting early-career researchers and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Based in VU Amsterdam's Department of Biological Psychology, she collaborates with LEARN! and Amsterdam Public Health research institutes. Her Oslo-based work with CREATE and PROMENTA centres leverages Norwegian registry data to study education-mental health intergenerational transmission across 114,000 families.