Here you will find information about the current board members of the Central PhD Council.

Benthe van Wanrooij – Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Benthe van Wanrooij is a PhD candidate at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education (RICDE). Her research focuses on accessible pathways towards higher education. She studies the opportunity structure towards higher education from the perspective of students in primary, secondary and higher education. The aim is to map obstacles students may encounter and examine the choices and strategies they make or use in response to these obstacles. Benthe started her PhD in September 2021 and as of November 2021, she represents the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences within the Central PhD Council.

Timo Schenk – Faculty of Economics and Business
Timo Schenk is a PhD candidate of the Econometrics group at the Amsterdam School of Economics (ASE). His research aims to improve the statistical tools used to evaluate the effect of policy changes on economic outcomes. He is interested in applications in environmental economics, labor economics and health economics. Timo started his PhD in September 2020 and represents the Faculty of Economics and Business in the Central PhD Council since July 2022.

Wenwen Guan – Faculty of Humanities
Wenwen is a PhD candidate at the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC). Her research looks into the use of metadiscourse in Asian learners’ English writing and speaking, combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings are expected to help language learners improve their communicative skills at the discourse level. Wenwen started her PhD in 2020 and represents the Faculty of Humanities (FGw) in the Central PhD Council as of November 2022.

Pramiti Parwani – Faculty of Law
Pramiti is a PhD Candidate at the Law Centre for Health and Life. She focuses on issues of access to vaccines in low and middle-income countries. In particular, she looks at the impact of EU and India’s legal and regulatory framework on global access to vaccines beyond their borders. The aim is to map out the obstacles– and the role of EU and India therein- to low-and-middle income countries’ capabilities to access vaccines. She started her PhD in February 2021, and as of November 2022, she is representing the faculty of law of the University of Amsterdam.

Daphnee Chabal – Faculty of Science
Daphnee Chabal is a PhD Candidate in the Complex Cyber infrastructure Group of the Informatics Institute. Her research focuses on making small digital objects, like most IoT devices, more secure, private, and able to hold computationally heavy applications, such as Deep Neural Networks. Daphnee started her PhD in January 2022 and joined the Central PhD Council board as the FNWI representative two months later. In the board, she looks forward to being a fair and active representant for all PhD students, and their diverse interests, in the Science Institute, and beyond.

Sophie van 't Hof - Faculty of Medicine
Sophie is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychiatry at the Amsterdam UMC. Her research is about understanding the effects of pregnancy on the brain. She started her PhD in October 2021 and represents the Faculty of Medicine in the Central PhD Council since July 2022.
Faculty of Dentistry - vacancy
We're looking for you! There is currently no ACTA representative on the Central PhD Council. Are you doing your PhD within ACTA, and are you interested? Then let us know at cpc@uva.nl.