BCN PhD Council

The BCN PhD council is a student organization which represents all PhD students and promotes their broad interests within the BCN research school, in terms of education, opportunities, connectivity, and networking, among others.

As the BCN council, we keep an eye on the quality of the educational program by bridging BCN PhD-candidates to the BCN Board and the Educational Advisory Committee. We actively participate in meetings concerning educational matters of the BCN research school and we represent the PhD candidates' interests while putting our best effort into ensuring their needs are met. Thus, by getting input about "life within BCN" from PhD candidates, we are able to strengthen our institution as well as the quality of teaching and research.

As representatives of the BCN PhD community, we regularly engage with PhD-candidates through surveys, e-mails and face-to-face interactions, in order to obtain feedback and their perspective on a range of work-related topics, such as teaching, supervision, courses, amongst others. If you have any suggestions for the improvement of specific courses or the program in general, don't hesitate to contact us! Please note that for individual difficulties (e.g. supervisor-related issues), it is best to contact the confidential counselor of our Graduate School:

Additionally, we organize workshops and lectures. Announcements for these BCN activities are shared via email on a weekly basis to keep you informed of the available opportunities to develop your skill set. Be sure to also keep an eye out for our social events as a great way to meet and connect with fellow BCN PhD-candidates! Of course, we are open to hear about your ideas for events, lectures, or workshops that you would like to have.

Please do not hesitate to contact us ( phdcouncilbcn rug.nl ) or any of our members (see the list below) if you have any suggestions, ideas or questions of any subject (if we don’t know the answer, we can put you in contact with someone who can help you) - we are here for you!

Current PhD council members

• Janine Rook
  Center for Language & Cognition (CLCG)
  Since: January 2023
  j.rook rug.nl

• Maria João Caiado
  Pathology and Medical Biology (UMCG) & Molecular Pharmacoloy (GRIP)
  Since: February 2024
  m.j.da.costa.caiado rug.nl

• Katharina Polsterer
  Center for Language & Cognition (CLCG) - Computational Linguistics (CL)
  Since: February 2024
  k.m.polsterer rug.nl

• Sönke Steffen
  Bernoulli Institute - Cognitive Modeling
  Since: March 2024
  s.steffen rug.nl

• Jente Zeubring
  Biomedical Sciences (UMCG)
  Since: July 2024
  j.zeubring rug.nl

• Emily Iliana Michail
  Internal Medicine (UMCG) & Delirium Research Group Groningen (UMCG)
  Since: October 2024
  e.i.michail umcg.nl

• Karsten Knol

  Pedagogy and Educational Sciences - Inclusive and Special Needs Education Unit
  Since: December 2024
  k.j.knol rug.nl

• Danique Zantinge

  Groningen Institute for Life Sciences
  Since: January 2025
  d.c.zantinge rug.nl