Five Leiden researchers elected as members of KNAW
Five Leiden researchers have been nominated as members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).They will be inaugurated on 16 September.
Members of KNAW are elected on the grounds of their scientific performance. This year KNAW appointed nineteen new members, bringing the total number of KNAW members to around 550.
The following new members have been elected from Leiden University and the LUMC:
Jenny Dankelman – Professor of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Interventional Techniques
Jenny Dankelman develops medical instruments for minimally invasive surgery. Such instruments used to be used only for keyhole surgery, but today surgeons are also able to perform more complex operations without having to make large incisions. Dankelman and her research group devised an instrument, for example, that can find its way through branching arteries. They also made a minuscule water cutter that can remove cartilege. Dankelman brings together researchers from technical and medical domains, shares her knowledge with practitioners and works to construct safe and inexpensive medical instruments for poor countries.
Andrea Evers – Professor of Health Psychology
Andrea Evers is an expert in the area of pain, itching and placebo effects. She integrates insights from biomedical sciences, neurosciences, psychobiology and psychopathology. Evers and her research group develop new behavioural therapies that make use of apps and internet. She has been awarded several prestigious subsidies and prizes, was a member of the Young Academy of KNAW (2013-2018) and has inspired and taught many young researchers.
Marian Klamer – Professor of Austronesian and Papuan Linguistics
Marian Klamer is a linguist who studies how languages influence one another. She is a specialist in the indigenous languages of Eastern Indonesia, a region where hundreds of different languages are spoken that exhibit both similarities and major differences. Klamer first charted and described a number of different languages. Together with fellow researchers she went on to compile a public database with information on 45 minor languages threatened with extinction.
Leo Lucassen – Professor of Labour and Migration History
Leo Lucassen is an internationally renowned researcher in the area of migration history. He conducts research on mobility, interactions between migrants and the already present population, and migration politics. With his research Lucassen builds a bridge between historic research and social sciences. He is a regular participant in societal debates, including as a guest in Dutch television programme Buitenhof, as an author of articles in national newspapers and as an active user of Twitter. Together with his brother Jan (who also works atthe Institute for History), he wrote the book Vijf eeuwen migration (Five Centuries of Migration in 2018.
Ewout Steyerberg – Professor of Clinical Biostatistics and Medical Decision-Making
Now that medical science has access to big data, the clinical prediction research undertaken by Ewout Steyerberg is crucial. His book Clinical Prediction Models written in 2009 gave the field of research an enormous impetus. Steyerberg has developed advanced regression modelling and other statistical techniques for making predictions. The aim of his research is to make better decisions in healthcare. His methods are standard practice in many clinical domains throughout the world. Other areas on which he focuses include designing and analysing randomised clinical studies, cost effectiveness, the analysis of decisions and the quality of healthcare research.