Swantje Falcke is an Assistant Professor in Economic and Social History at Utrecht University's Department of History and Art History. As part of the College of Humanities, her research focuses on migrant integration, naturalization, and the interplay between environmental change and migration patterns. Areas of Expertise: Migration and Societal Change, Pathways to Sustainability, In-Equality Studies Academic Background: PhD in Economics (2017) at Utrecht University, Post-Doc in Political Science at Maastricht University Her interdisciplinary work examines: Education-labor market mismatches among Dutch migrants Impact of German citizenship law reforms on naturalization Long-term effectiveness of refugee integration policies Environmental change effects on migration dynamics Scientific recognition includes: Duncan Black Award (2014) for political economy research NWO XS grant (2024) for environmental migration studies Her publications demonstrate methodological rigor, combining longitudinal analysis, policy evaluation, and empirical economic testing.
Dr. Wim Biemans is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Groningen, specializing in Innovation Management and Marketing. He holds a PhD from Eindhoven University of Technology (1989) and has over 25 years of experience in research, teaching, and consulting. His work focuses on service innovation, B2B marketing, customer involvement in innovation, and the marketing-sales interface. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles and books, including the best-selling Dutch B2B marketing textbook. His research has been recognized with awards like the Thomas P. Hustad Best Paper Award. He serves as Triage Editor for the Journal of Product Innovation Management and editorial board member for Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing. Biemans teaches at the University of Groningen and multiple international institutions, including guest professor roles in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. He also designs executive programs for managerial training in innovation management and customer value creation. His recent research explores humor’s impact on creativity, digital tools in sales-marketing integration, and bridging technology-to-product development gaps. He emphasizes end-to-end value creation through intra-organizational collaboration and has published on the Valley of Death ecosystem challenges in innovation commercialization.
Peter Werner is a Full Professor of Behavioral Economics and Policy Design at Maastricht University's School of Business and Economics, where he leads research in the Department of Economics (Microeconomics & Public Economics section). He progressed from Assistant Professor (2016-2017) to Associate Professor (2018-2023) before attaining his current full professorship, demonstrating sustained academic contribution within the institution. His educational foundation includes: Ph.D. in Economics, University of Cologne (2005-2009), thesis: 'Behavioral Economics and Agency Problems: Empirical Studies' Diplom-Volkswirt in Economics, University of Cologne and Stockholm School of Economics (1999-2005) Werner's research centers on applying behavioral insights to real-world systems , with dual focus on fundamental social preference mechanisms and practical policy design. His work bridges laboratory experiments with field applications, particularly in wage transparency , pension decision architecture , and organizational incentive structures . Recent methodological innovations integrate population-level surveys with experimental economics to measure preference stability during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of his 2022-2025 publications reveals expanding scope from traditional labor economics into climate behavior and intergenerational solidarity, while maintaining core expertise in experimental methodology. Key trends include increased focus on Dutch pension systems, risk communication frameworks, and cross-generational discrimination patterns using nationally representative samples. His primary recognition includes: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2017-2019) for 'Wage transparency in companies' (Horizon 2020 Grant 745894) Werner actively secures competitive funding through major initiatives: Current: Netspar Theme Project on risk preference measurement (Instituut Gak) Recent: Netspar pension savings project (2019-2023) Past: Marie Curie Fellowship (2017-2019) He coordinates the UM Behavioral Insights Center and co-organizes the M-BEES/M-BEPS symposia series, fostering research-practice integration. As co-director of the UM Behavioral Insights Center—one of the university's research spearheads—Werner leads interdisciplinary teams applying experimental economics to public policy challenges, with particular emphasis on pension communication and labor market transparency through partnerships with Dutch governmental and financial institutions.
Phuong H. Nguyen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He leads the digital Power & Energy Systems (digi-PES) lab, focusing on smart energy systems, distributed control, and IoT integration for future energy grids. His research addresses energy transition challenges, including microgrid optimization, flexibility markets, and data-driven grid management. Nguyen holds a PhD from TU/e (2010) and has held visiting researcher positions at Clemson University. His work contributes to UN SDG goals related to affordable and clean energy. Education: Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology (2002) Master's in Electrical Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology (2004) PhD in Electrical Engineering, TU/e (2010) Key Research Areas: Smart Grids and Cyber-Physical Systems Distributed Energy Resource Management Local Energy Markets and Flexibility Provision IoT and Big Data in Energy Systems Awards & Recognition: Best Paper Award SEST 2020 Projects & Grants: REACT-D: Reactive Power Management (Project Manager) Al-driven Applications to Smarten Power System Operation (Project Lead) UNIversity Campus as a Self-Regulated Network (Co-Manager) Labs & Teams: The digi-PES lab develops cyber-physical tools for energy transition, including microgrid simulations, flexibility markets, and grid resilience strategies.
Raquel Fernández is Full Professor of Computational Linguistics and Dialogue Systems at the University of Amsterdam, where she leads the Dialogue Modelling Group at the Institute for Logic, Language & Computation (ILLC). As Vice-Director for Research at ILLC and a Fellow of the ELLIS Society, she bridges computational linguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence through her research on language use in multimodal and conversational contexts. PhD in Computational Linguistics from King's College London Prior research positions at University of Potsdam and Stanford University's CSLI Her work explores how cognitive constraints, social interaction, and perception shape language use, with a focus on: Visually-grounded language processing Multimodal dialogue modeling Model uncertainty and calibration Language grounding in multimodal data Language learning and semantic change Dialogue reference resolution Recent publications analyze multimodal reasoning limitations, cross-lingual knowledge consistency, and uncertainty modeling in dialogue systems. She has received multiple accolades including an ERC Consolidator Grant , NWO VENI/VIDI/Aspasia fellowships , and EMNLP/GenBench awards . Outstanding Paper Award (EMNLP 2023) Best Data Award (GenBench Workshop 2023) ELLIS Society Fellow ERC Consolidator Grant #819455 recipient NWO VENI/VIDI/Aspasia awardee As a leader in academic service, she serves on the SIGDAT Executive Committee and chairs multiple conference committees. Her lab develops models for multimodal dialogue, visual storytelling, and grounded language understanding.
Prof. Joost Reek is a Professor at the University of Amsterdam's Faculty of Science and leads the Homogeneous, Supramolecular and Bio-Inspired Catalysis group within the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences. He serves as scientific director of NIOK (Netherlands Institute for Catalysis Research), a nationwide graduate school coordinating catalysis research across Dutch universities under recognition by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). His research focuses on supramolecular chemistry and catalysis, with expertise in supramolecular cages, homogeneous catalysis, sustainable chemistry, solar fuels, and electrochemical conversions. The group develops novel catalysts for industrial reactions (hydroformylation, hydrogenation), biomass conversion, and solar fuel generation including water oxidation and CO 2 reduction. Recent work explores nanocage systems for bioorthogonal chemistry and photoactive catalytic nanospheres. Reek's team secured a €10.6 million Synergy grant in 2023 for brain cancer research involving nanocages delivering small interfering RNAs. They maintain industry partnerships through NIOK's VIRAN advisory board and operate a spin-off company translating molecular research into applications. The group is embedded within the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, utilizing advanced facilities for molecular design and catalytic testing. Their interdisciplinary approach bridges fundamental supramolecular chemistry with sustainable energy solutions and biomedical innovations.
Mohammad Aliannejadi is an Assistant Professor at the IRLab (formerly ILPS) within the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on Information Retrieval (IR), machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and conversational systems, particularly in modeling user information needs on mobile devices and conversational search systems. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland, and a M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic. During his Ph.D., he visited the CIIR Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. His research interests include conversational search systems, recommender systems, unified search frameworks, and user-centric evaluation methodologies. Notable contributions include work on clarifying questions in open-domain dialogues, contextual suggestion systems, and cross-market recommendation. Aliannejadi has organized major shared tasks and workshops, including the IGLU Contest (NeurIPS 2021) and XMRec Workshop (RecSys 2021). He serves on program committees of top IR conferences like SIGIR, CIKM, and ECIR, and has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in these areas. His work has received recognition, including top performance in TREC Contextual Suggestion tracks (2015, 2016). He actively contributes to the IR community through teaching, including courses on Information Retrieval and Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning at the University of Amsterdam.
Yali Tang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), specializing in fluid dynamics and transport phenomena within multiphase flows and physicochemical conversions . Her work targets Iron Power technology , green steel production , and alkaline water electrolysis for hydrogen generation, combining advanced computational models with experimental validation . Education: Master's in Chemical Engineering from Sichuan University (2011) PhD in Mechanical Engineering at TU/e (2015) with Prof. Hans Kuipers Research Interests: She focuses on interphase interactions , interfacial transport mechanisms , and high-resolution simulations (down to 40 nm mesh) to predict bubble coalescence and film dynamics. Her studies on hydrogen bubble growth , dendritic iron formation , and gas distribution in electrolyzers aim to refine reactor design and industrial processes. Collaborations with industrial partners ensure practical applicability of her computational models. Recent Publications: Her 2025 work includes dimensional analysis of liquid film formation, solutal Marangoni effects in electrolysis, and X-ray validation of gas distribution models. Earlier studies (2020–2023) cover defluidization behavior of iron fines, CFD-DEM modeling of raceways, and acoustic field applications in particle dynamics. Labs & Collaborations: She leads computational efforts within the Power & Flow group under Prof. Niels Deen, contributing to the EIRES Research cluster. Her work bridges academic research with industrial innovation in fluid dynamics and energy transition technologies.
Dr. Dicle Yagmur Ozdemir is an Assistant Professor of Business Information Management at the Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University. She joined RSM in September 2023 after earning a PhD in Management Science (Information Systems concentration) from the University of Texas at Dallas, a Master's in Industrial Engineering from Sabanci University, and a Bachelor's in Industrial Engineering from Istanbul Technical University. Her research focuses on user-generated content dynamics in online platforms and the application of generative AI in healthcare. She employs econometric modeling and natural language processing to study how novel information in reviews influences stakeholders' decisions, and designs algorithms to mitigate information overload. In healthcare AI, she experiments with generative AI's impact on patient-provider interactions. Her work has been presented at top conferences including CIST, WITS, ICIS, WCBA, and INFORMS. Key themes in her research include algorithmic fairness in content selection, the psychological effects of AI-driven health advice, and the mediation effects of review novelty on consumer behavior. She has collaborated internationally, with research outputs including 6 works since 2023. Notable contributions address the moderating role of review dissimilarity in credibility assessments and the paradoxical effects of positive/negative review valence in decision contexts.
Massimo Mischi is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and chairs the Signal Processing Systems (SPS) Division , the largest division at TU/e with over 250 researchers. He founded the Biomedical Diagnostics (BM/d) Lab in 2012, which now includes 180 researchers and clinical/industrial advisors, focusing on biomedical signal processing for diagnostics and monitoring.
Thomas Bäck is a Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) , Leiden University , Netherlands, and a member of the interdisciplinary programme Society, Artificial Intelligence and Life Sciences (SAILS) . His academic career spans roles at Leiden University (1996–present) and leadership positions at the Center for Applied Systems Analysis in Dortmund (1994–2000). Education : Diplom-Informatiker (Computer Science), Technische Universität Dortmund (1990) Dr. rer. nat. (Computer Science), Technische Universität Dortmund (1994) Research Interests : Dr. Bäck specializes in evolutionary computation , machine learning , and their applications in sustainable smart industry and healthcare . Recent work focuses on integrating large language models (LLMs) and quantum computing into optimization frameworks, with projects like CIMPLO (predictive maintenance), ECOLE (experience-based optimization), and SAPPAO (airline operations optimization). Scientific Contributions : His 526+ publications cover evolutionary algorithms, quantum optimization, and LLM-driven design, with recent trends including: Quantum computing (e.g., quantum approximate optimization, quantum advantage challenges) LLM integration (e.g., hyperparameter tuning, mutation control, code evolution graphs) Healthcare and industry (e.g., predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, melt quality prediction) Algorithm benchmarking (e.g., IOHprofiler, MA-BBOB, explainable benchmarking) Scientific Awards : IEEE Fellow (2022) Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) member (2021) Academia Europaea member (2022) IEEE Computational Intelligence Society Evolutionary Computation Pioneer Award (2015) Fellow, International Society of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (2003) Best Ph.D. thesis award, German Society of Computer Science (GI) (1995) Advising and Grants : He supervises Ph.D. candidates in evolutionary computation and machine learning and has secured 7 major grants from organizations like the Dutch Research Council , European Commission , and The Research Council of Norway . His editorial roles include Editor-in-Chief of the Evolutionary Computation Journal and associate editorships in leading AI journals.
Valeria Caiati is an Assistant Professor at the Urban Planning Group within the Built Environment School at Eindhoven University of Technology. Her research focuses on sustainable urban mobility, smart cities, and the role of ICTs in fostering sustainable development. She leads the SCRIPTS project exploring demand-driven mobility services and platform technologies. She holds a PhD from TU/e, preceded by professional experience in international consultancy and research institutes in Italy. Valeria teaches courses like 'Built Environment and Smart Mobility' and contributes to 8 active/funded projects, including LEVERAGE and NEDAM initiatives. Her research interests revolve around Mobility as a Service (MaaS), sustainable transportation policies, and behavioral modeling of transport adoption. She employs mixed-methods approaches, including stated choice experiments and portfolio analysis to assess user preferences and system impacts. Recent work examines parking guidance systems, electric vehicle adoption drivers, and corporate sustainability interventions. Valeria has supervised 9 academic works and actively participates in peer-review for journals like Transportation and European Transport Research Review . She engages in professional activities such as invited talks on MaaS bundling strategies and workshop participations on transformative urban mobility. Her teaching portfolio includes courses integrating theory with practical studio projects in urban development.
Anna Grigolon is an Assistant Professor at the University of Twente , Netherlands, affiliated with the Transport Engineering and Management Research Group . Her research focuses on sustainable urban mobility , user-centric transport solutions , and travel behavior analysis using tools like discrete choice modeling , spatial analysis , and social psychology theories . Research Interests : Sustainable Urban Mobility Accessibility Modeling Travel Behavior Discrete Choice and Latent Class Modeling Spatial Analysis and GIS Shared Micromobility and Mobility Hubs Equity in Transport Planning Article Trends : Anna’s recent work (2025–2024) emphasizes mobility justice , 15-minute city transitions, and equity in transport access , particularly for marginalized communities like São Paulo favelas. She integrates digital tools (e.g., serious games, kiosks) and space-time metrics to evaluate mobility solutions. Projects : She currently leads the SmartHubs project and contributes to DREAMS and R-map , focusing on smart, equitable mobility systems in Europe and Saudi Arabia.
Tal Simons is Professor of Organization Theory in the Department of Organisation and Personnel Management at Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University Rotterdam, and has been an ERIM Fellow since 2019. His research examines organizational responses to societal pressures through institutional and behavioral lenses. Simons' work centers on institutional theory applications in regulatory resistance, ideological dynamics, and organizational authenticity. He investigates how firms navigate social movements, media scrutiny, and moral legitimacy challenges across diverse sectors including tobacco, wine, and contemporary dance. His methodology blends historical analysis with qualitative case studies to uncover patterns in community cohesion, aesthetic innovation, and cross-cultural collaboration. Publication trends reveal an evolution from foundational studies on kibbutzim and Israeli wine industry transformation (1997-2010) toward contemporary analyses of CSR-media relationships, regulatory compliance, and authenticity construction (2015-2024). Recent work emphasizes ideological imperatives in news coverage and moral legitimacy frameworks, while maintaining consistent theoretical grounding in institutional logics and organizational ecology. Professional recognition includes: ERIM Fellow (2019–present) As an active doctoral supervisor, Simons mentors nine PhD candidates across organization theory and behavior domains. His advisees explore cross-cultural collaborations, multi-stakeholder organizing, sustainability-focused community enterprises, and societal change mechanisms. Supervision spans 2015 to present with roles as promotor and committee member, reflecting sustained commitment to developing organizational scholarship through next-generation researchers.
Valentina Mazzucato is Professor of Globalisation and Development at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, where she teaches and leads research in transnational migration and development. She founded and directed the research programme on Globalisation, Transnationalism and Development (2012–2020), co-founded the MA Globalisation and Development Studies, and led the development of the interdisciplinary BSc Global Studies. She is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and has held leadership roles in major research initiatives including the ERC Consolidator Grant project MO-TRAYL. Her educational background includes a BA in Political Science and French Literature from Williams College, an MSc in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, and a PhD cum laude from Wageningen Agricultural University on indigenous soil and water conservation in Burkina Faso. Her research focuses on transnational migration between Africa and Europe, particularly the socio-economic and cultural impacts on migrants, their families, and communities. She employs mixed methods and multi-sited research designs, pioneering the simultaneous matched sample methodology. Her recent work explores transnational youth mobility, return visits, remittances, and temporalities of migration. The articles from 2024–2025 reveal a strong thematic consistency in migrant youth, transnational identity, methodological innovation, and policy implications, reflecting her leadership in interdisciplinary migration scholarship. ERC Consolidator Grant (2017–2023) for MO-TRAYL project Elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), 2019 Prof. Mazzucato has secured multiple international grants from NWO, NORFACE, and the ERC, enabling her to build transnational research teams and mentor PhD candidates and early-career researchers. She supervises Bachelor’s and Master’s theses and externally examines PhDs internationally. She is actively involved in policy engagement, having advised Queen Beatrix and participated in EU and NGO forums on migration and development. She also co-created a play with Ghanaian migrants to translate research into public dialogue. She leads the Transnational Links and Livelihoods Group and collaborates across institutions including Princeton University (Center for Migration and Development), African universities, and policy organizations. Her work bridges academic research, teaching innovation, and societal impact.
