New Scientist Science Talent of the Year 2025: Aranka Ballering

Aranka Ballering has been named New Scientist Science Talent of the Year 2025. The annual award is organised by science magazine New Scientist. Ballering conducts research at the UG and the University Medical Centre Groningen into gender and sex differences in the care of people with (persistent) physical complaints. She is committed to improving healthcare for both women and men. The winner of the New Scientist Science Talent 2025 title receives a cash prize of 1,500 euros.

Challenging assumptions

Ballering conducts her research using large data sets. Gender norms are often subtle and unconscious. Data can reveal invisible patterns and thus break through persistent assumptions. For example, she demonstrated that women experience more frequent, more severe and longer-lasting physical complaints than men.

Women also visit their general practitioner more often for their physical complaints, but are less likely to undergo diagnostic testing than men. Partly because of this, the chance that women's physical complaints will remain unexplained is 6% higher than for men. Moreover, the diagnostic testing that is done is less effective at detecting diseases in women than in men.

More appropriate care for women and men

Ballering combines knowledge from large datasets with sociological and historical perspectives. In doing so, she shows that differences between men and women in health and healthcare are not only determined by biology, but also by socio-cultural factors. Her research can help make healthcare for women and men more appropriate, effective and personalised.

New Scientist Science Talent

Universities, colleges and research institutions have nominated their young promising talents over the past few months. Fifteen top talents were selected from these candidates, and the public was invited to vote for them. After the public vote, a jury deliberated on the five candidates with the most votes.

This year's jury consisted of Bernadette de Bakker (university lecturer at Amsterdam UMC and winner of New Scientist Science Talent 2023), Cecil Meeusen (university lecturer in sociology and social data science at KU Leuven), Eddie Brummelman (chair of De Jonge Akademie), Jorgen D'Hondt (director of Nikhef), Marcel Levi (chair of NWO) and Jim Jansen (editor-in-chief of New Scientist).