Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs 
Theme: Mental Health

Martín Hernán Di Marco is an Assistant Professor at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs. His research focuses on violence perpetration and prevention, with a particular emphasis on gender, masculinity, and desistance processes. He examines how social networks, cultural norms, and institutional settings influence trajectories of violence, harm, and desistance. 

Within the Mental Health theme of the Social Sciences Sector Plan, Di Marco contributes a criminological and sociological perspective, exploring how a biographical lens can be applied in contexts of violence and social inequality to address interpersonal violence. His research links individual life courses with broader systems of power and governance, examining how gendered expectations and community structures shape pathways into and out of violence. His research connects individual life courses with broader systems of power and governance, exploring how gendered expectations and community structures shape pathways into and out of violence. 

Before joining Leiden University, Di Marco worked at the University of Oslo’s Institute of Criminology and Sociology of Law, served as an Adjunct Professor at Emory University, and Lecturer at the University of Buenos Aires. He has also collaborated with the World Health Organization on projects related to external causes of mortality. He currently serves as Managing Editor of NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies and sits on the boards of the International Sociological Association’s Working Group 11 on Violence and Society and the Research Committee 38 on Biography and Society.

Through his interdisciplinary and internationally engaged work, Di Marco advances the understanding of how people engage with violence and disengage from it, aligning closely with the sector plan’s goal to promote resilience and well-being across generations.

Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences 
Theme: Mental Health

Julie Hall is an Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology at Leiden University. Her research explores the complex interactions between emotion, cognition, and motor functioning in health and disease. Additionally, she studies how dysfunctions in brain networks and neuromodulators contribute to mood and cognitive functioning in both health and disease. Her main focus is on how anxiety shapes the clinical and neurobiological profile of Parkinson’s disease, examining its influence on motor, cognitive, and affective symptoms. She uses behavioural paradigms, such as virtual reality and gait assessments, and functional neuroimaging to investigate the diverse ways anxiety manifests in patients.

Within the Mental Health theme of the Social Sciences Sector Plan, Hall advances interdisciplinary understanding of mental health mechanisms. Through collaboration with colleagues across Leiden University (and in the Netherlands), she explores how neurocognitive processes and psychological well-being are interlinked. Her recent projects include a longitudinal study on student mental health and developing recommendations for predicting mental health outcomes and disorders. 

Hall’s work advances fundamental understanding of anxiety by characterizing the heterogeneity of its manifestations. Her research contributes to more precise conceptual models of anxiety in neurological and non-clinical populations.

Health, Medical and Neuropsychology, Institute of Psychology 
Theme: Mental Health

Kaya Peerdeman is an Assistant Professor in Health and Medical Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on how psychological and social factors—such as expectations, trust, and doctor–patient communication—influence physical and mental health. By studying placebo and nocebo effects, and expectation effects more generally, she examines how expectations shape experiences of pain, stress, and other symptoms, and how the mechanisms can be harnessed to improve treatment outcomes. 

Within the Sector Plan theme Mental Health, Peerdeman has developed a pioneering research line that is the first worldwide to empirically integrate insights from placebo research into shared decision-making between doctors and patients. This innovative approach, recently funded by an NWO Open Competition XS grant, includes studies on pain management during childbirth, aimed at improving birth experiences and preventing post-traumatic stress symptoms. The sector plan has also enabled Peerdeman to initiate new theoretical and empirical work on how expectations shape health outcomes, particularly focusing on expectation violations, uncertainty, and flexibility.

Her work exemplifies the interdisciplinary ambition of the sector plan: connecting psychological science with clinical practice, communication research, and beyond within the Netherlands and worldwide to enhance both patient outcomes and well-being. A recent Leiden Psychology Blog post, co-authored with the sector plan team, highlights these collaborative efforts and their value for advancing health care. 

Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences 
Theme: Mental Health

Mischa de Rover is an Assistant Professor in the Clinical Psychology Unit at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental health, particularly using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study how pharmacological and behavioural interventions influence mood and cognition. By combining neuroimaging, behavioural testing, and pharmacological methods, De Rover seeks to unravel how antidepressant treatments — including novel and fast-acting alternatives to traditional SSRIs — affect brain function and emotional processing. 

Within the Mental Health theme of the Sector Plan, De Rover plays an active role in strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration across psychology, neuroscience, and clinical research. The sector plan has enabled new partnerships within and beyond Leiden University, including joint analyses of large-scale MRI datasets and the development of a standardized MRI pipeline to improve data sharing and reproducibility. 

Together with colleagues, De Rover also contributes to national initiatives on student mental health, interdisciplinary research blogs, and collaborative position papers that connect scientific insights with societal challenges. Her work exemplifies the sector plan’s mission to foster team science — bridging fundamental neurobiological research and applied approaches to promote better mental health outcomes. 

Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences 
Theme: Mental Health

Laura Steenbergen is an Assistant Professor in the unit of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. Her research spans cognitive and affective processing, the microbiota–gut–brain axis, and the integration of experiential knowledge into psychological science and education. She investigates how personal experiences with mental health can inform scientific understanding and professional practice, bridging the gap between lived experience, clinical insight, and experimental research. 

Within the Mental Health theme of the Social Sciences Sector Plan, Steenbergen explores how interdisciplinary and reflective approaches can advance the study of mental well-being. She examines the biological and psychological mechanisms that underlie resilience and vulnerability — from the influence of gut microbiota and the vagus nerve on emotion and decision-making to the ways in which students’ own experiences shape their learning in psychology. 

Steenbergen’s work exemplifies a commitment to openness, collaboration, and scientific integrity. She actively engages in public outreach and interdisciplinary teaching, supervises bachelor’s and master’s students, and contributes to discussions on research ethics, transparency, and social safety. Her projects aim to strengthen the connection between scientific knowledge, personal experience, and societal well-being, aligning closely with the sector plan’s mission to innovate in both research and education on mental health.  

Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences 
Theme: Mental Health

Linda de Voogd is an Assistant Professor in the unit of Clinical Psychology at Leiden University. Her research lies at the intersection of affective neuroscience and translational experimental psychopathology, focusing on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying anxiety, stress, trauma, and their treatment. Using neuroimaging and psychophysiological methods, she investigates how memories for traumatic experiences are formed, how they contribute to vulnerability or resilience, and how behavioural interventions can improve recovery. 

Supported by a starter grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, De Voogd leads the project Improving translational research on trauma-related psychopathology by taking the clinic into the lab. Her research bridges fundamental science and clinical practice, aiming to make laboratory findings more applicable to real-world treatment contexts such as PTSD prevention and therapy. 

Within the Sector Plan Mental Health, De Voogd also contributes to innovative teaching and interdisciplinary collaboration. She co-coordinates the bachelor course Interpersonal Professional Skills and works across departments and universities on projects that connect research, education, and public outreach. Recent initiatives include a national study on translational trauma research, a collaborative review on mental well-being, and the science communication project The Horror Paradox, which explores why fear can be enjoyable — with field studies conducted at public events such as Lowlands Science. 

Through her integrative approach, De Voogd seeks to better understand the biological and psychological foundations of trauma and to translate these insights into effective interventions that strengthen mental health and resilience.