Vote for the title of Science Talent of the Year 2025!

The final week of voting for New Scientist Science Talent 2025 has begun. The editors of New Scientist selected fifteen nominees from a mountain of submissions from Dutch and Flemish colleges, universities, and knowledge institutes.

Three University of Groningen researchers have been nominated for the title of greatest scientific talent in the Netherlands and Flanders. The nominees come from all corners of science and are conducting research into gender differences in healthcare, fundamental questions about lightning, and two-dimensional materials.

You can vote for them here and help determine – together with an expert jury – who will be crowned Science Talent 2025. The polls close on September 8.

To enable the timely publication of the English version of this text, translation software was used. A verified and potentially modified version of this translation will be published as soon as possible.

Aranka Ballering (Faculty of Medical Sciences)

Aranka Ballering's research on gender and sex differences in care for people with (persistent) physical complaints puts her in the running to become the New Scientist Wetenschapstalent 2025. She is committed to improving healthcare for both women and men and conducts research using large datasets to achieve this. Gender norms are often subtle and unconscious. Data can reveal invisible patterns and thus challenge persistent assumptions. For example, Aranka demonstrated that women experience more frequent, more severe, and more persistent physical complaints than men. Women also visit their general practitioner more often for their physical complaints, but receive less diagnostic testing than men. Partly because of this, the chance that women's complaints remain unexplained is 6% higher than that of men. Moreover, the diagnostic testing performed is less effective at detecting illnesses in women than in men. Aranka combines knowledge from large datasets with sociological and historical perspectives. This demonstrates that differences between men and women in health and care are determined not only by biology but also by socio-cultural factors. Aranka's research can make care for both women and men more appropriate, effective and personalized.

Brian Hare (Astron / Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Lightning remains a fascinating natural phenomenon, the exact mechanisms of which are not yet fully understood. Dr. Brian Hare of the Faculty of Science and Engineering and ASTRON is dedicated to solving this scientific puzzle. This bring us closer to answering fundamental questions about lightning: How does lightning actually start, and how does it propagate through the air? Using the LOFAR radio telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, his research team creates detailed images of lightning activity. Their analytical methods have gained international recognition and are now used by scientists worldwide. The research has provided new insights. For example, Dr. Hare discovered needle-like structures along the positively charged parts of lightning, which could explain why single lightning flashes often strike the same place multiple times.  His team also detected electrical flashes above Dutch thunderstorms that closely resemble ordinary lightning.

Dr. Hare’s work has received international acclaim, with publications in leading journals such as Nature. Moreover, he shares his findings not only with fellow scientists but also with the general public, contributing to a better understanding of natural phenomena and the societal relevance of climate and weather research.

Antonija Grubišić-Čabo (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

Most of the world around us is three-dimensional, but some materials break this rule. These two-dimensional materials are only one atom thick, and they often behave in ways that feel almost like science fiction. Imagine a sheet so thin that it is nearly invisible, yet it is stronger than steel, or a material that can carry electricity without any heat generation, which no ordinary wire can do. These extraordinary properties could enable devices that run faster, stay cooler, and waste far less energy. That could stop your phone from overheating, cut down on the massive energy use of data centers, and even lower your electricity bill, all while helping combat climate change.

Antonija Grubišić-Čabo investigates how to create and control these remarkable materials using advanced spectroscopy and microscopy. Recently, she and her team developed KISS (Kinetic In situ Single-layer Synthesis), which is a simple, contamination-free method for producing pristine, atom-thin samples. Thanks to the elegance and simplicity of KISS, the development of more sustainable electronics is one step closer. By exploring these materials and techniques, Antonija is uncovering new physics and pushing the boundaries of what science and technology can achieve.

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