Meet Our Editorial Committee
We are a team of master students, PhDs and academic staff from VU Amsterdam. We write, review and edit articles about life science. We have research training in Neurosciences, Biomolecular or Biomedical Sciences. Every year we are happy to welcome new members to join our committee.
We meet regularly to collaborate on editing content and also work in smaller sub-committees to get things done. All committee members are encouraged to review, edit and contribute content during their VU:Sci tenure. Our committee is a great place to build a portfolio or professionalize your skills in writing, web & creative design, social media, or project management.
take a closer look
Editors
Madison Carr
Committee Trainer | Lead Editor
Madison is a behavioural neuroscientist and academic skills lecturer in Amsterdam.
Along with the original crew she founded the VU:Sci online magazine back in 2019. Currently she's responsible for committee training, meetings and outreach. Get in touch if you'd like to work with us!
Vera Kuhnke
Communications | Lead Editor
Vera is a Neurosciene Master's student. Her main interests are fundamental research (particularly the research on glia cells and stem cells) and how this may be translated into relevant clinical knowledge. She is passionate about reading, writing, popular science and science journalism and aims to one day become an editor at a journal like New Scientist.
Jenna Pfeifer
Lead Editor | Copy Editing | Website
Jenna completed her masters of neuroscience in research during which she developed an interest in the developing brain during her final project exploring APOE phenotypes in stem-cell derived neural organoids. She is now a Junior Lecturer in Biomedical sciences at the VU and is passionate about redesigning education and hopes to combine her insights from teaching with neuroscience to explore emotional factors involved in learning.
Bastian Meth
Website team lead
Bastian is a Neuroscience master's student. His main interest lie in the cell and molecular pathology of psychiatric diseases. His goal is to contribute to the understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of mental illness using human iPSC models.
Rebecca Vischjager
Website
Rebecca has an extensive background in biomedical sciences. Her main interests, however, lie in neurosciences, in particular the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and disease effects on neurophysiology. Currently, she has started a second bachelor in medicine.
Sara Said
Visual science team lead
Sara graduated with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. With her big interest in neuroscience she hopes to soon master in this direction. Her interests lie predominantly in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders as well as brain research. In the future she hopes to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life.
Kayleigh Gultig
Copy Editing
Kayleigh is a Neuroscience master's student. She has a broad range of interests including neuroscience, genetics and biochemistry. She is especially passionate about psychiatry and how research in this field can be used to improve diagnostic tools and patient outcome. Furthermore, she hopes to contribute to translating science to make it more accessible for the general public.
Sonja van Scheijen
Mentor | Editor
Sonja has a double degree in Biomolecular Sciences and Philosophy, Bioethics, and Health. She always had a broad interest in several topics, resulting in numerous side-jobs in all kinds of positions during her studies, starting her own company, following a minor in literature and obtaining a double degree. She works as a research and teaching associate at iH2LS with a special interest in academic skills.
Aafke Kerkhof
Copy Editing
Aafke is a second year master student at the VU, completing the masters Neurosciences and Biomedical Sciences. She is interested in development of stem cell-derived models and how this can complement animal model research. She wants to combine her interests in neurobiology and immunology to do fundamental research within the field of MS and other neuro-immunological disorders.
Tessa Groeneweg
Visual Science
Tessa is a student at the VU doing the master Biomedical Sciences with the specializations infectious Disease and Immunology. She has a special interest in host pathogen interactions, loves working on the lab and doing research. For her, it is important that science is accessible and understandable for everybody.
Maike Mußmann
Website
Maike recently finalized her MSc with a specialization in immunology and infectious diseases at the VU Amsterdam. Her research focused on IgG allotypes at Sanquin and later on CRISPR as a cure for HIV at the AMC. Soon she would like to again focus more on antibody research. During side jobs such as vaccinating during the pandemic and also teaching bachelor students, she developed a passion for science communication.
Anna Knol
Website
Anna is now finishing her master Biomedical Sciences at the VU with an internship on the the role of autophagy in CD4+ T cell activation and anergy. She is specializing in immunology but has a great interest in the field of Science Communication. Therefore, she hopes to be able to combine these two fields in her future practices.
Lisette Pot
Visual Science
Lisette is a first year master's student Neurosciences at the VU. She is interested in brain development, behaviour and neuro-anatomy. She loves working in the lab, but is also exploring her potential in computational neuroscience.
Elizaveta Tatarnikova
Social Media
Elizaveta is a first year Neuroscience Master's student at VU. Her personal interests lie in psychiatry, behavioural-related therapies, pharmacological interferences in depression and OCD patients, and cellular mechanisms of memory. Her aim is to cover the most of on-going reserach in these topics and continue her career in investigation in one of these fields.
Aaisha Sheth
Copy Editing | Social Media
Aaisha is a second-year Neuroscience master's student. Her research interests involve improving the diagnosis, management, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. She is passionate about raising awareness on the role of women in science and making science more accessible to a general audience through science communication.
Sien Verbeek
Social Media
Sien is second year master student in both Science & Business management at the UU and Biomedical Sciences at the VU with specialisations in Immunology and Science Communication. She is particularly interested in the immune system and exploring topics that are on the intersection of science and business. Additionally, she is interested in science communication, aiming to make scientific topics interesting and engaging for a broader audience.
Let's not forget
Alumni
Leo Soares
Chloe Statia
Former Lead Editor
Rosan de Winters
Mariah Kes
Daimy Ruiters
Jule Schretzmeir
Visual Sciences founder
Ambika Mahajan
Raluca Blujdea
Mette Oorthuijs
Helen Pijffers
Annika Dokter
Miriam Öttle
Paul Bethlehem
Sarah Roche
James Fawcett
Edward Ciputra
Maya Allister
Michelle Barboure
Copy Editing | Website
Michelle is a Biomedical Sciences graduate who followed a free curriculum focused around brain imaging, machine learning and cognitive neuroscience. She is born and bred South African, with German and Irish heritage! Her interests have changed a lot over the past year, but currently she is particularly curious about human cognition and machine learning.
Medina Husic
Maria Riscado Ramos
Camille Bouhour
Iraklis Vretzakis
Lalitha Veleti
Simone Dunn
Copy Editing
Simone is completing a joint masters of neuroscience and philosophy of neuroscience. She has developed an interest in the relationship between diet, inflammation, and mental health. In addition, Simone is involved in higher education reform based on insights from contemporary neuroscience and philosophy of neuroscience fields.
Zuzanna Baran
Social Media
Zuzanna graduated from the Neurasmus Neuroscience Master programme. She has always been interested in biological and environmental factors that drive humans to act in certain ways. She is keen on discovering the basis of memory formation and human social and sexual behaviour. She completed her internship project focused on generation of input-specific synaptome maps. In her free time she is committed to promoting gender equality, loves art and treats cooking as her mindufulness practice.