Magazine articles, august - december 2019

Nature, prosperity and happiness

Frans Sijtsma is a nature-lover, a fan of the Wadden Sea who climbs trees as a hobby. But he is also an economic geographer who never loses sight of the hard rules of economics. He tries to unite both of these aspects in his work.
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The epidemic of physical inactivity

Koen Lemmink: ‘Movement is the most important lesson at primary school’

The result of the football match between the Netherlands and Estonia won’t remain in our memories for long – but the statement that the orange-clad players made against racism will. This is an example of the unifying power of sport. We talked with football fan and Professor of Sports, Performance and Innovation, Koen Lemmink, about the function of sport and movement in society.
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Photo report: Scared of the 3D spider

Illusion Manager: that’s what Frans van Hoesel calls himself. But the head of the Reality Center of the UG is not a magician who plays with your perception. What is an illusion, actually? A vision, an apparent reality. Yet the 3D images that Van Hoesel projects are solid and real – as are the physical feelings that they can conjure, too.
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Stories of the dead

As a child, she wanted to become a surgeon. Now, although she doesn’t make any incisions, Brenda Mathijssen does take a deep look into people’s souls. As a religious scientist, she researches funeral rites and the ways in which those left behind give meaning to the death of a loved one. It brought her into intimate situations – to even inserting a coffin into a cremation chamber.
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Fighting for the right to demonstrate

Farmers, builders, teachers and shopkeepers who protest, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) discussions, social dissatisfaction worldwide.... these are busy times for an expert in demonstration law. Lawyer Berend Roorda is inundated with questions from journalists, mayors and police. He gives advice, courses and likes to share his ideas. It’s busy, but he loves his job.
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Emeritus Professor Douwe Draaisma: ‘I’m a sucker for a good story’

Douwe Draaisma has written books explaining why life speeds up as you get older. Now, as he settles into retirement, he gets to experience the phenomenon first hand. Mathijs Deen travelled to Texel to meet up with the autobiographical memory expert, whose attitude to his own aging process is optimistic. He reckons he still has few books left in him.
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The success of MOOCs and online teaching

Tom Spits is proud of ‘his’ online courses

When Tom Spits and his wife, a Rosalind Franklin Fellow, found themselves in the USA, he decided to spend a year focusing on the theory of education and online teaching. This has proved very useful in his job as MOOC coordinator in the Educational Support and Innovation (ESI) department of the University of Groningen (UG).
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Preventing the rapid decrease in healthcare staff

As a nurse, she experienced the cutbacks in healthcare first-hand. Now, 10 years later, researcher Jasperina Brouwer is looking into a solution for the resulting staff shortages. With her project ‘Back to Nightingale’ (Terug naar Nightingale), she is researching how to prevent the rapid decrease in healthcare staff– because solely recruiting new students is like filling a bucket that’s full of holes.
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No arguing: it’s time to relax

Thanks to the smartphone, these days we keep our work on the kitchen table or bedside table. The boundary between work and private life is steadily fading. This is a cause for concern, says Jessica de Bloom, who thinks that we should be using our leisure time to recover from the pressures of work. But the occupational health psychologist at the University of Groningen also acknowledges that this is easier said than done. Even in this remote, primitive Finnish log cabin, she cannot resist the odd furtive glance at her mailbox.
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Two thousand years of horse beans on the salt marshes

More than 2,000 years ago, people were already eking out a living on the salt marshes. How did they do it? What did the inhabitants of the wierden and terpen (dwelling mounds) of the Northern Netherlands eat? And what crops did they grow? Mans Schepers, an archaeologist with a special interest in agricultural crops, is studying the interaction between humans and the landscape.
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Making a splash in whale research

He disliked genetics as an undergraduate and never really wanted to work with whales. Yet, Per Palsbøll became a worldwide expert in the genetics of marine mammals, heading a research programme spanning the entire globe. Introducing the concept of genetic tagging, he used genetic tools to identify individuals in species that are difficult to capture and tag. Careful analysis is what he strives for: not bold statements in the media, but rigorous research.
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‘Consumers need better protection’

Someone buys a new mattress online. A simple enough transaction. But what if they then return the product within 14 days? They have tried the mattress out for a few nights and don’t like it. The seller can’t really put it back on the market as a ‘new’ product. Cleaning it would cost money and detract even further from its newness. Besides, who’s going to foot the bill? For Charlotte Pavillon, it is issues like these that make consumer law so fascinating.
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From bully to handyman

Tidying up, assisting during a show, cleaning – these are just a few examples of the kinds of chores that pupils sometimes do at primary school. But the child enthusiastically introducing the school musical could quite easily be a former bully. Because, as it turns out, chores are a secret weapon in the fight against bullying.
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Smart cities: doom or dream scenario?

Dr Ryan Wittingslow from University College Groningen (UCG) is a man with a loud laugh and many talents. On closer scrutiny, you’ll discover that he operates on the cutting edge of philosophy, technology, aesthetics, urban studies and the history of science. But who is he, why is he so interested in smart cities and how did he get here from Sydney?
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The fight against village shrinkage

‘Holwerd aan Zee is visionary and innovative’

Tialda Haartsen arrives at our meeting on her e-bike, having cycled from Eenrum. ‘I lived in the city for a while but the countryside lured me back. And Eenrum is a lively village with plenty of amenities.’ Haartsen should know. As a researcher of rural depopulation, she has plenty of reference material. In the bog of village shrinkage, beautiful flowers occasionally blossom unexpectedly.
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Dictators at the first Arts Festival

Saddam Hussein’s wars and ostentatious palaces, Gaddafi’s Bedouin tent, the seemingly moderate Mubarak – Middle East dictatorships have many faces. Nevertheless, according to Dr Kiki Santing, they share a common pattern. She will be expanding on this in greater detail during a short lecture at the first Arts Festival.
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Interview with Christiaan Triebert, Alumnus of the Year

‘It’s out there, on the Internet’

For the first time in his life, Christiaan Triebert has his own place, in Brooklyn. The 28-year-old Visual Investigations Journalist at The New York Times receives requests from all over the world to talk about how to find out facts using open sources available on the Internet. The academic foundation for this was laid at the University of Groningen, which has now chosen him to be its Alumnus of the Year.
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Data Science: a breath of fresh air for physics, genetics and history

Few university researchers get as much interaction with other fields of science as do the data scientists at the CIT, the Center for Information Technology at the University of Groningen. The team is currently involved in around 30 projects within a wide array of University departments.
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