What do you like most about your job?

There are many things I value about being a researcher and lecturer at EB. Being born in Kenya, and coming from a mixed Dutch-English background, I've always had an interest in different countries and cultures. There is so much international diversity nowadays among colleagues and students at EB, there's no need to go to international conferences anymore (though I still do)!
Another aspect I appreciate about academia in general is that we get time to think both narrowly, in the specifics of our own research, and broadly, in our teaching of a broader range of topics. I don't think many other jobs offer this balance.
The same holds for the social interactions we have. Doing research (usually in economics) with a small number of collaborators creates both friendships and professional output. At the same time, interacting with a large number of eager-to-learn young adults gives a multitude of fresh and vibrant interactions. I find this a very pleasant balance between social intimacy and a wider scope.

Is there a project from this past year you are particularly proud of?

I'm not sure proud would be the right word, but I'm happy with research I did (with Erik Plug and Ferry de Haan) at a secondary school in the Netherlands. We evaluated the schools' gifted and talented programme using both registry data and online surveys. The registry data involved many different datasets from the schools administration that had to be carefully merged together. This was quite a bit of work. We managed to do it successfully in close cooperation with the school. Also, the response rate to our survey was so high it overloaded the school’s WiFi system. In all, a successful research enterprise if you ask me, though our referees seem to think otherwise. Publishing results from a single school in the Netherlands proves difficult. We disagree, of course, and think our results can be generalised for other settings as well. The programme we evaluated is very similar in nature to those implemented in other Gymnasium (pre-university) schools in the Netherlands. And around the world there are many examples of gifted and talented programmes similar to ours.

What don’t most colleagues know about you?

Most colleagues probably know I'm a passionate indoor soccer player and cyclist. What most people might not know is that EB colleagues have been playing soccer after work since 1984 (then organised by Risto Heijmans). I joined in September 2000. Also, I recently cycled 300 km in one day, something I would never have dreamt of doing if it wasn't for Erik Plug. I recently found out that my great-grandfather was Italian. Some say this explains my temperament. There's nothing I can do about it.