Our Board Members
Ioana IIie
PresidentThe president leads this organization with passion and vigor. For such a young organization, the focus of the term is on 1) establishing active communication channels between our members, our active volunteers and academy policymakers, and 2) reaching national awareness of the presence of this organisation.
As of February, she has been a TTAP in Chemistry of Biomolecular Systems at the University of Amsterdam. She focuses on the complex interplay between the structure and function of biological and bio-inspired systems, using computational modelling based on the underlying biochemistry and physics. She has a Physics background and an MBA, did her PhD in Computational Biophysics at the University of Twente and postdocs at the Universities of Darmstadt and Zurich. For two years she was the IT lead of the Life Science Zurich Young Scientist Network in Switzerland (LSZYSN). LSZYSN promotes excellence in life sciences in Switzerland, and its main mission is to reduce the existing gap between academic research and the life science industry. For three years she was a board member of the PhD Network of the University of Twente (P-NUT) for which I was also elected as President. The role of P-NUT is to inform, connect and represent (University and national level) PhD candidates from the University of Twente. Her time as a President was characterized by the professionalization and growth of a young organization. Additionally, it was marked by changes in the Dutch education system, which required a lot of negotiations with University officials to defend the rights of PhD candidates.
Athina Vidaki
Vice PresidentThe VP connects Assistant Professors across the Netherlands and defends their interests by organizing regular events addressing political and organizational national changes as well as communicating with policymakers. The VP promotes the interests of Assistant Professors nationwide and raises awareness among our senior colleagues of our struggles and interests.
Athina Vidaki is a Research Group Leader at Maastricht UMC+ and an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University. She studied Biology at the University of Athens in Greece, after which she moved to London (King’s College London) to pursue her MSc and PhD degrees in forensic genetics. In 2016, she moved to the Netherlands for her postdoctoral research studying twin epigenomics at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, where with the support of two research fellowships she grew to an independent group leader. Her group performs innovative and technology-driven research in (epi)genomics, to characterize novel levels of biological individuality, currently supported by an NWO Vidi grant. Her research has a direct translational potential, benefiting forensics and crime solving, but also the clinic via new cutting-edge diagnostics. She always greatly values the role of professional societies in achieving profession-wide progress, policy-making and individual support. Previously, she served the Erasmus MC postdoc network for >4 years, two of which were as a Chair, achieving institute-wide policy changes. She has been a board member of APNet since its foundation in 2022, first as Community Lead and now as vice president, aiming to help young PIs have a better experience and future in Dutch academia.
Stephan Hacker
SecretaryAs secretary, my most visible task for you will be summarizing the achievements of each year in the yearly statement, presented in the general assembly in April. Behind the scenes I furthermore will keep a record of the activities of the board and the organisation in general such that from day one of our organization we will have an archive enabling us to pass on everything we built together.
Stephan Hacker is an Assistant Professor at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry of Leiden University. He studied Life Science at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Afterward, he performed his PhD studies with Prof. Andreas Marx at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and his postdoctoral research with Prof. Benjamin Cravatt at Scripps Research in La Jolla, USA. After his postdoctoral research, he started his independent career as a group leader supported by a Liebig Fellowship at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. His group is focused on the identification of new target proteins for the antibiotics of the future. For this purpose, his group develops chemistries for novel covalent protein ligands targeting diverse amino acids as well as chemoproteomic technologies to study their target engagement with a resolution of the modified amino acid residue in proteome-wide studies.
Anouk Beniest
TreasurerThe treasurer should 1) establish a financial system for APNet that is simple, transparent and fair and 2) successfully obtain yearly funding from government institutions to organize activities and services for our members and 3) focus on the committee “Network growth & Sustainability” to attract new members and stimulate local networks of Assistant professors as well as linking with partner organizations.
Anouk Beniest has been an Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in Earth Sciences since March 2021. She finished my studies in Geology at Utrecht University, after which I moved to Paris (Sorbonne University) to pursue a PhD degree. Her first postdoctoral position (1,5 years) was at VU Amsterdam, after which she got my second postdoc position at GEOMAR in Kiel, Germany on an Alexander Von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has been an active committee member advocating for Early Career Scientists (ECS) at various levels in academia. Her most important and influential position was within Europe’s largest Earth Sciences organization (EGU), where she attended board meetings and voiced the needs of ECS, representing about 9,000 ECS members. Together with two colleagues, she launched a more local, but quite effective initiative, bringing the Assistant Professors of the department together to discuss the needs and become active in the department. Her international experience has helped to develop her vision of what academia would and could look like. Together with Eveline Snelders, they started this initiative, APNet, to represent and include Assistant Professors in academic conversations at the national level.
Anne de Bruijn
PR LeadThe lead of PR is to enrich the communications among all the group committees in PR-related activities, and further provide sufficient support, such as maintaining safe and healthy news platforms via social media, as well as interactions among newsagents.
Anne de Bruijn is an assistant professor at the Department of Educational Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She studied educational sciences at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, after which she pursued her PhD at the University of Groningen. Her research focuses on physical activity and children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, specifically in (primary) school settings. Being a sports enthusiast herself, she aims to find out how all children can benefit from engaging in physical activity.
Martin Skrodzki
IT LeadThe lead of IT provides sufficient support to the IT operations, such as maintaining safe and healthy backends to all ICT aspects of AP-Net.
Martin is an assistant professor at the Computer Graphics and Visualization group at TU Delft in the Netherlands. He’s an associate editor of the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts and an editor of the online journal w/k – Between Science & Art. Furthermore, he’s a member of the Solid Modeling Association and a member of the Delft Young Academy. His research interests include the use of illustrations in mathematics, visualization of high-dimensional data, discrete geometry processing as well as interactions between mathematics and arts.
Luisa Cortesi
Board MemberAdditional Board members support the activities of AP-Net in general. They take on special tasks that are
Luisa Cortesi is an environmental anthropologist who studies water disasters and climate change, environmental knowledge and environmental justice, drinking water contamination and purification technologies, floods and sustainable development. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Water, Disasters, and Environmental Justice at the International Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands, as well as a Sustainability Fellow and Board Member at the Young Academy for Sustainability, Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, Germany. In 2020 she was awarded the Marie S. Curie Junior Fellowship at the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies. Previously at Cornell University, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Environment and Sustainability, at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Stanford H. Taylor Postdoctoral Fellow in Science and Technology Studies and Anthropology; and a Fellow at the Atkinson Centre of Sustainability. Dr. Cortesi holds a dual Ph.D. with distinction in Anthropology and Environmental Sciences from Yale University.
Board Member Alumni
Kaitai Liang
Board Member AlumnusIT&PR Lead 2022 to 2023
Eveline Snelders
Board Member AlumnaTreasurer 2022 to 2023
Rifka Vlijm
Board Member AlumnaSecretary 2022 to 2023