University of Groningen Worldwide

We open this newsletter on a celebratory note with a big thank you to our international students! According to the International Student Barometer you have rewarded our university with the title 'Best University of the Netherlands'! We offer a sneak preview into the preparations for the celebration of our upcoming 400-year anniversary. We supply you with handy hints on how to become a successful researcher, and Marjette Slijkhuis gives an insight into the personality characteristic "Personal Need for Structure". Finally you get to read what Kees Hummelen means when he says "Now things really get interesting!"  

This winter edition contains small scale and big scale stories. Meet Vava, a female entrepeneur in Kenia, who runs a fair trade coffee company. In India, women are taking the lead in both their business as well as their home through the microfinance project of Robert Lensink. Making a difference on a personal level. Read more about Lofar in a truly “universal” article. Last but not least, we congratulate our ERC laureates with earning this prestigious research grant. The University wishes you an inspirational 2012.

This autumn issue is a truly international one. Featuring among other things, an interview with Scottish born professor Gregory Ashworth who has lost his heart to Groningen, international improv comedy group Stranger Things Have Happened and interviews with two international students. You will learn more about Groningen professor Ben Feringa's research on nanotechnology and about the Groningen Confucius Institute.
Furthermore, you will get the scientific answer to the question whether love is indeed blind. And last but not least we introduce our brand new alumni song and our very own online magazine. Enjoy!

In the spotlight are the university's carillonneur Auke de Boer and Jodien Houwers of the Office for International Relations. Watch the one and only University of Groningen lipdub and find out which lessons alumni can learn from primates.

In this newsletter among other things, a video in which the former and the new Rectors of the University of Groningen are interviewed, alumna Renske Mast who shares her story on being a General Practicioner on a Greek island, and three alumni love stories. The Director of the University Language Centre, Anje Dijk, is interviewed and you will meet Groningen astronomer Amina Helmi, joint discoverer of a new stellar stream in the Milky Way.

In this winter newsletter reports of the Dutch Universities Alumni Reunion at the Dutch Embassy by writer and journalist Annemieke Hendriks and details about the 'Groningen Polar Night'. The University of Groningen is doing well internationally: it figures in the Top 100 of the Taiwan Ranking, is part of the CHE Excellence Group and has been awarded four prestigious European research grants.

The 2010 autumn newsletter is opened by Prof. Safri Nugraha, Dean of the Faculty of Law of the Universitas Indonesia and alumnus of the University of Groningen. Furthermore a report of the opening of the Centre for Russian Studies by the Russian archbisshop, positive words by alumna Hong Hahn Vu, a video on the University of Groningen Discovery Truck, and Geertje Schuitema on changing the behaviour of car users.