Science Faculty PhD Council

Who are in the council?

• Athena Institute

  Luka Gudek
  Room: WN A-653
  l.gudek@vu.nl
  
  Who am I?
  My name is Luka, I am a PhD candidate at the Athena Institute where I research public engagement and multi-stakeholder processes within the area of food system transformation. My academic background is in Political Science, which I studied and practiced in Zagreb, Utrecht, and Brussels, before settling in Amsterdam at the VU.
  
  What is my research about?
  My research focuses on the role of public engagement and multi-stakeholder engagement in facilitating large-scale sustainability transitions. I am conducting this research in a transdisciplinary, action-oriented way, through the CLEVERFOOD project.
  
  Why am I a member of the PhD council?
  Through participating in the council, I am supporting the institutional position on the PhD candidates on a Faculty level, as well as making the perspectives of the Athena PhD candidates heard. It is also always interesting for me to better understand the governance structures around us, in this case the PhD Council and the Beta Faculty.

• Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences

  Agathe Depraz Depland
  Room: O2 building O8W45
  a.deprazdepland@vu.nl

  Who am I?
  I am Agathe Depraz Depland, I come from France and I am a PhD student in the Chemistry and pharmaceutical department, where I work on protein aggregations related to neuro-degenerative diseases.

  What is my research about?
  Neuro-degenerative diseases occur when the proteins in the brain misfold and aggregate to become fibrils. However the process of aggregation is complex and highly dynamic and it is believed that the intermediate oligomers are the one toxic for the brain cells. In the MS-LaserLab, we are developing a methodology that will be able reveal the identity, the structure, and the temporal evolution of these key intermediates.The idea is to use a novel single experiment hyphenating droplets-based microfluidics electrospray ionisation, mass spectrometry, ion mobility spectrometry and InfraRed action spectroscopy.

  Why am I a member of a PhD council?
  I love to be involved in something that seems bigger than just me. Being able to help with improving PhDs situation rather than just observing. I also like that I get to understand a bit better how things work around the faculty and identify the main actors.

• Computer Science

  Nikos Kondylidis
  Room: NU:10th floor A35
  nikos.kondylidis@vu.nl

  Who am I?
  I am Nikos and I am doing my Ph.D. in the Knowledge Reasoning and Representation (KRR) group of the Computer Science department. I like socializing, meeting new people, and trying to better understand their points of view. I would be very happy if in the future my work could help different communities or people to understand each other and make it easier to find a common ground for living together.

  What is my research about?
  My research is funded by the European project "Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric Artificial Intelligence" (MUHAI) which is focused on researching artificial intelligence methods that have more humane properties. These properties would include common sense and understanding of social issues and are aimed to be applied in human-focused domains like disambiguating recipe execution and predicting or explaining social inequality causes. In more detail, my Ph.D. is focused on assisting two parties, that use different vocabularies, to successfully communicate, interact, and cooperate. Specifically, the two parties are represented by two knowledge graphs and the tasks that I am working on are best described by the terms meaning coordination and ontology alignment.

  Why do I love being a member of this Ph.D. council?
  As a Ph.D. student, I can experience some of the problems that other students are facing. Being a member of the Ph.D. council allows you to better understand these problems and why they occur while also the opportunity to try and resolve them or at least officially acknowledge them as a starting point. Finally, I understand that the Ph.D. experience alone can be very tough and I want to try my best to ensure that our Faculty is supporting its students as much as possible.

• Earth Sciences

  Fleur van Crimpen
  Room: W&N R350
  f.c.j.van.crimpen@vu.nl
  

  Who am I?
  I am Fleur and I am currently doing a PhD on coastal erosion along the Canadian Beaufort sea coast at the department Earth sciences. I have a background in geo-ecological dynamics and earth sciences.

  What is my research about?
  For my research I’m looking at the transport of carbon from thawing permafrost along eroding coasts in the Canadian Arctic. With the use of hydrodynamic fractionation we try to mimic the transport within the marine system, by doing so we try to understand what part will degrade and what will end up on the sea floor.

  Why do I love being a member of this Ph.D. council?
  Within the council I want to be an advocate for everyone who struggles with the combination of fieldwork, lab work and the never ending writing part. But besides that the VU should be a space where everyone feels safe and respected, being part of the council will give me the opportunity to fight for a better support and guidance within the VU.

• Ecology and Evolution

  Vacant

• Envrionment and Health

  Vacant

• Health Sciences

  Vacant

• Institute for Environmental Studies

  Tristian Stolte
  room: NU-8A40
  tristian.stolte@vu.nl

  Who am I?
  My name is Tristian Stolte and I am doing a PhD on global scale assessments of disaster risk in cities. I conduct my research at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) in the Water & Climate Risk (WCR) department, located in the NU-building.

  What is my research about?
  Cities play an increasingly important role in the climate crisis and case studies on climate-related disaster risk are often conducted for specific cities. Yet, there are hardly any studies conducted on disaster risk for multiple cities simultaneously (that is, which cities are most at risk for a given disaster) and knowledge on this topic is therefore fragmented. I aim to close that gap by performing global-scale and urban-focused disaster risk studies, while also trying to gather and harmonize some of the fragmented information on cities that is relevant to disaster risk assessments.

  Why am I a member of the PhD council?
  The PhD council is a means of centralizing the needs of the PhDs, and voices their feelings towards those that influence these needs and feelings. Moreover, it provides tools and upholds systems that help both new and existing PhDs in their –often difficult– journey of achieving their promotional title. I hope to be able to further this cause and to maintain the good work of the PhD council that is already done.

• Mathematics

  Fabio Buccoliero
  Room: NU 9A-94
  f.buccoliero@vu.nl

  Who am I?
  I am Fabio Buccoliero. I am a PhD student in the mathematics department, where I work on topological graph theory. I am passionate about mathematics and how to explain mathematics in an easy way.

  What is my research about?
  My research consists of applying knot theory to graph theory. In particular, I work with graphs (which are just a bunch of points connected by lines) whose lines are knotted, called spatial graphs. I try to see which of these spatial graphs can be put on top of a sphere or other surfaces, without letting their lines intersect each other.

  Why am I a member of a PhD council?
  I love being involved in what happens in my university. I believe that the PhD council is a wonderful opportunity not only to keep myself informed but also to be active for my department.

• Molecular Cell Biology

  Vacant

• Neurosciences

  Vacant

• Physics and Astronomy

  Tinka Clement

  Who am I?
  I am Tinka Clement, doing my PhD in the department of Physics. I'm part of the group of the Physics of Living Systems. I have a background in molecular cell biology and i'm very interested in investigating biological systems at the single-molecule level.

  What is my research about?
  The main focus of my PhD projects is gaining a deeper understanding of the organization and mechanical properties of human mitotic chromosomes. To achieve this, i use optical tweezers combined with fluorescence microscopy to hold, stretch, and visualize individual human chromosomes. Pretty cool if you ask me!

  Why am I a member of a PhD council?
  In short: to make everyone's experience as a PhD student in the Faculty of Science a bit of a smoother ride. I strive to achieve this through adressing any problems directly with the faculty, improving the availability of useful information, and building a sense of community among PhD students.