Institute of Biology Leiden

Boards and Councils

The IBL's staff participates in the various boards, councils and associations, where they meet and exchange ideas on the continuous institute's improvement.

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board of the IBL consists of eminent scientists with specialist expertise in complementary disciplines. They all have prominent positions for the field of Biology in the Netherlands outside our own institute.

Members

Prof. dr. J.T. Pronk (Jack)

TU Delft – Industrial Microbiology

Prof. dr. J. den Hertog (Jeroen)

Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht

Prof. dr. A.J. Murk (Tinka)

WU Wageningen - Marine Animal Ecology

Prof. dr. N. van Straalen (Nico)

VU Amsterdam - Ecology and Evolution

Prof. dr. E. van Sebille (Erik)

Utrecht University - Marine and Atmospheric Research

Dr. S. Van der Ent (Sjoerd)

Director Innovation at Koppert

Board of Examiners

The Board of Examiners consists of scientific staff members of the IBL, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and CML, who teach in the biology programmes. They are appointed by the Board of the Faculty of Science and act independently from the research institutes. The responsibilities of the board include organization and coordination of examinations, granting exemptions and approval of final achievements for individual bachelor and master programmes, and handing out BSc and MSc-diplomas and supplements at graduation ceremonies.

Correspondence

All correspondence to the Board of the Examiners should be addressed to ExamcieBiology@biology.leidenuniv.nl. Please do not contact members of the comittee directly.

To submit a petition or objection to the Board of Examiners, please fill in this form.

Members

For more information about the Biology committees, please check the organisatiegids website.

Institute Council

The purpose of the IC is to serve as a link between IBL members and management on any issues that either group deems to be important. Because our role is to represent your interests and concerns, we are comprised of IBL members at all levels of organization, from BSc students, PhDs and postdocs, to technical and academic staff at all career stages.

Do we matter for you? Yes! If you have concerns about any issues within the IBL that affect your welfare and happiness, you can bring these to our attention and we will ensure they are directly discussed with the Management Team. Issues can concern things like decisions about the education program, how budget changes affect Sylvius renovations, questions about social safety, aspects of the reward and promotion structure, and much else. The IC is more effective with greater input from the people working within the IBL. We encourage you to participate.

There are three ways to work with The Institute Council:

We will hold walk-in sessions every two months where you are invited to bring your questions and concerns. The dates of meetings will be announced on the IBL website and by email.
If you can’t make it to the walk-in sessions, you can contact the IC via our email adress.
We can all be reached individually as questions or issues arise. IC members are listed below.

Minutes of our meetings with the Management Team will be posted to the Institute Council Teams page to update IBL members on the outcome of discussions.

The IC has a monitoring and advising role towards the management of IBL and represents technical support staff, PhD’s and students, scientists and lecturers at IBL.

Members

Dr. B.M. Wielstra (Ben)

Associate Professor, Animal Sciences
Email: b.m.wielstra@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. J.M. Varkevisser (Judith)

Lecturer
Email: j.m.varkevisser@biology.leidenuniv.nl

G.C. van der Velden (Guus)

Education and research staff member
Email: g.c.van.der.velden@biology.leidenuniv.nl

C.G. Koops (Kees)

Education and research staff member
Email: k.koops@biology.leidenuniv.nl

L. Siewers (Luuk)

PhD Candidate
Email: l.siewers@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. H.U. van der Heul (Helga)

Education and research staff member
Email: h.u.van.der.heul@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. S. Irmisch (Sandra)

Assistant Professor, Plant Sciences
Email: s.irmisch@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Benthe Pieters

LBC President
Email: praeses@leidsebiologenclub.nl

Programme Committee Biology

The Programme Committee Biology (Opleidingscommissie Biologie, OCB) consists of four teaching staff members and four students, and is assisted by the study adviser. The OCB has an independent position within the Biology education program. Because of its composition, the OCB is the most important organ where students can bring up problems concerning courses or tuition programs and can contribute to further improve biology education.

The OCB meets approximately once a month. An important part of its work consists of evaluating the biology education programs and guard their quality. This is done by analyzing students and instructors assessments of courses of the Biology BSc, Minors and MSc programs. In addition, the OCB advises the Director of Education about tuition and exam regulations and other matters concerning education.

Recently, the course evaluation procedure was adapted to provide better feedback to the students. Students and staff now have the possibility to view the summarized student evaluations and the reflections of the course instructors on Brightspace, after enrolling in course module “Cursus Evaluaties”.

Members

Students:

Gráinne Vacanti (student assistant)
Esmée Teuben
Douwe Evenhuis
Edoardo Facchielli

Staff members:

Dr. ir. J.J. Willemse (Joost)

IBL, Chair
Email: jwillemse@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. M. Stech (Michael)

Naturalis biodviverstiy centre
Email: michael.stech@naturalis.nl

Dr. J. Verschoor (Jo-Anne)

IBL
Email: j.verschoor@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. T.J.E. Aivelo (Tuomas)

IBL SCS
Email: t.j.e.aivelo@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Research Data Management Committee

The IBL Research Data Management (RDM) Committee helps employees of IBL with their data management issues. We try to help implement the IBL RDM policy that is an IBL specific adaptation of the faculty and the university data management policy.

In practice this means:

Writing a data management plan before the research
- Template DMP
Storing active research data on Researchdrive (“hot storage”).
Storing imaging data on OMERO
Recording experiments in the electronic lab notebook (ELN).

More detailed information can be found on our wiki page. We are there to help you manage your data properly and answer questions about data management. So don’t hesitate to contact us

Members

Dr. ir. J.J. Willemse (Joost)

Email: jwillemse@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. C. Du (Chao)

Email: c.du@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. T.J.E. Aivelo (Tuomas)

Email: t.j.e.aivelo@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. J.M. Varkevisser

Email: j.m.varkevisser@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Study Information Committee

The Study Information Committee works to create a positive and accurate picture of the bachelor and master programs offered by the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL). The committee consists of IBL staff members and study ambassadors. We reach out to future and current students, high school biology teachers, journalists, and other curious individuals.

Members

Dr. ir. J. van den Brink (Joost)

Chairman
Email: j.van.den.brink@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. K. Spaninks (Kiki)

Staff Member
Email: k.spaninks@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. L. Schada von Borzyskowski (Lennart)

Staff Member
Email: l.schada.von.borzyskowski@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Mw. A.M. Verhaar (Amber)

Staff Member
Email: Bio-studentaffairs@biology.leidenuniv.nl

Mw. N.E. Bijl (Naomi)

Student Ambassador
Email: ambasbio@science.leidenuniv.nl

Mw. L. Kuijt (Lenthe)

Student Ambassador
Email: ambasbio@science.leidenuniv.nl

Dhr. L. van Vliet (Liam)

Student Ambassador
Email: ambasbio@science.leidenuniv.nl

Biospirits

Biospirits is the staff association for all employees and guest-employees of the IBL.

Our goal is to boost social cohesion and provide relaxation for all members of Biospirits. Throughout the year we organize social events, during and outside office hours, allowing employees from different departments, clusters, floors and buildings to meet for leisure and fun. When you become a member of Biospirits you can join the organisation of our well known Holiday Dinner with self-made courses prepared in the IBL and the IBL summer BBQ!

If you want to organize, participate in events, or just to learn more sign up for the BioSpirits here, or contact us via biospirits@biology.leidenuniv.nl.

Members

Dr. G. Forn Cuní (Gabriel)

Chair

Christina Kamerman

Joost Willemse

Guus van der Velden

Luis Avitia Domínguez

Masa Zupcic

Saloni Saxena

Sanderein Kuijper

Bas Laan

Join the BioSpirits!

Do you find joy in planning fun activities? Many adventures await you if you joinus! Being a part of the BioSpirits, you get a chance to connect to your colleaguesyou maybe don't work with that often, help organize different fun eventsthroughout the year and encourage overall social cohesion in the IBL.
You don't have enough time to attend our meetings? Fear not, because you canalso be our BioFriend! In that case you are welcome to occasionally help usduring the events we organize and be rewarded with some perks of being ourBioFriend 💌

Send us an email via biospirits@biology.leidenuniv.nl!

IBL PhD and PostDoc Association (IPPA)

The IBL PhD and Postdoc Association, also known as IPPA, seeks to create a platform for PhDs and Postdocs at the Institute of Biology Leiden to interact with one another. IPPA arranges social gatherings approximately four times each year, which include food and drinks, with the goal of integrating PhDs and Postdocs from different research fields. IPPA's events will be expanded to include opportunities for professional growth and networking.

IPPA provides assistance to all PhDs and Postdocs employed at the IBL and is happy to help with any inquiries. IPPA aims to serve as a link of communication between PhDs, Postdocs, and the IBL management team. To achieve this, a member of IPPA participates in the IBL Institute Council, and some IPPA initiatives aim to raise concerns and questions from PhDs and Postdocs and present them to the IBL management team. To learn more, please contact us via email.