NWO-I Fellowships provide opportunities for women

Hilde Verbeek – CWI can inspire other institutes

Fellowship: Constance van Eeden
Institute: CWI
Started on: 1 December 2022
Discipline: Computer science

Hilde Verbeek (23) is back in her home city of Amsterdam at CWI. During her master’s in computer science at Utrecht University, she discovered that she did not want to go into software development. She was more interested in fundamental research. During her search for PhD positions, she came across the Constance van Eeden fellowship (CvE) at CWI. She laughs at the memory: ‘I showed the advertisement to my boyfriend as an example of a good initiative without even intending to apply for it myself.’ However, that is what she subsequently did. What particularly attracted her to the CvE fellowship was that she could choose her own research group. Verbeek: ‘Compared to other PhD positions, that is unique and gives me a lot of freedom.’

Win-win situation

At the end of last year, Verbeek joined CWI’s subgroup Algorithms and Data Structures for Sequence Analysis of the Networks and Optimization group. She says she especially had doubts about how her colleagues would view her before she started: ‘Would they judge me as “that woman who got in on a diversity position”? This anxiety proved unfounded: I am accepted at CWI for my skills and knowledge. Most researchers see the fellowship as a win-win situation: CWI made money available for an extra PhD position and a woman has joined the team.’

Verbeek says that in her group of 25 people, four are women, including herself. One of them is a senior researcher and the other three are PhDs. Two of them have almost completed their doctoral research, as a result of which Verbeek will become the only female PhD. Everywhere in mathematics and computer science, and not just at CWI, female students and researchers are few and far between. Although more young women are choosing to study computer science, women also continue to drop out at every subsequent step on the scientific career ladder. Verbeek: ‘That is a problem that needs to be tackled everywhere. There are few female role models in computer science. This lack of role models, and the fact that men clearly outnumber women within the exact sciences, can mean that women feel they are outsiders. And that provides little motivation to rise further up the academic ladder. Another aspect is that women often experience disadvantages during job applications due to implicit bias, simply because they are women. New aspiring female researchers will feel safer and more welcome with more women in the exact sciences. CWI’s role could consist of collaborating with universities and other institutes to give potential role models a podium. For example, via an event like Girls Day, which aims to attract more female students. Also, CWI can inspire and encourage other institutes to realise initiatives like the CvE fellowship. As an ambassador, I’d very much like to contribute to that.’

About Hilde Verbeek’s research

Verbeek did her master’s research into a variant of the problem that is called the “Steiner Tree”: in a network, a connection is sought between a number of important terminals by using as little of the network as possible. The subgroup at CWI where Verbeek now works, focuses on designing algorithms and data structures suitable for analysing sequences. The sequence could be text, (personal) data or DNA, for example. Within bioinformatics, there is a lot of interest in the efficient matching and analysis of DNA sequences. Verbeek: ‘My research has a strong fundamental focus, but there is a range of international projects in which researchers are developing applications. One day I would also like to become part of those.’

Julia Engelmann – Off to Antarctica through WISE

Fellowship: WISE
Institute: NIOZ
Started: May 2020
Discipline: Bioinformatics

Julia Engelmann (44) holds a PhD in bioinformatics and, in the summer of 2017, started to work at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) with a tenure track contract for five years. At the start of 2019, she applied for a WISE grant. Partly due to being awarded this grant, Engelmann received a tenured position as a senior researcher, could join the Netherlands Polar programme of NWO, and could able to send her postdoc on a journey to Antarctica.

Engelmann is in favour of an instrument like WISE because there are big differences between men and women when it comes to acquiring funding via research proposals: ‘Men are more successful at this. They write more daringly than women, who only include things in proposals if they are very certain about them. Male assessors are also more likely to believe male applicants. I’m in favour of not including names and CVs in applications. An applicant can sometimes have a brilliant research idea at one occasion or, equally, a really bad one another time. So why are CVs so important? Competition must be on the basis of content. That is the case with grants for women like WISE. Of course, for this grant you must be able to present yourself with a good story as well.’

About Julia Engelmann’s research

Engelmann investigates interactions between microorganisms with her group and explains these using computer programs: ‘Microorganisms are so small that you cannot see them with the naked eye. Take bacteria, viruses and unicellular algae, for instance. We take samples from seawater and remove the cells of the microorganisms from these. Based on the DNA, we can reconstruct which species the water contained. My postdoc is collecting a lot of samples off the coast of Antarctica. We are comparing these with samples taken from the Wadden Sea.’ Why did she choose these locations? Engelmann: ‘I wanted to investigate two areas that are extremely different from each other. The Wadden Sea is heavily influenced by people, while that is hardly the case with the waters off Antarctica. We are now busy working on the DNA analysis, after which we will use computer models to better comprehend which species work together with each other. That knowledge is important for understanding how microbial communities produce food for the food web and reuse waste substances. Our models also include the potential impact of climate change.’

Wiebke Albrecht – A role model for young researchers

Fellowship: WISE
Institute: AMOLF
Started on: 1 May 2021
Discipline: Physic

Wiebke Albrecht (36) has been group leader Hybrid Nanosystems at AMOLF since 2021. She started as a new group leader at AMOLF at about the same time as the other group leader, Marc Serra Garcia. The institute received WISE funding for Albrecht’s tenure track position.

Albrecht says that WISE therefore made the appointment of two group leaders possible, and with that, the total number of women rose to 3 of the 20 group leaders: ‘I was appointed due to my skills and I hope that this always applies to everybody. However, if you look at the small number of women in scientific top positions, then incentive instruments such as WISE are still necessary to increase the proportion of female top scientists. Role models like me can inspire other young researchers – women and men – to combine a career in science with starting a family, for example.’ Albrecht has just returned from maternity leave after the birth of her first son. At AMOLF, she received a lot of support. Albrecht: ‘That was really great. I did not find it easy to go on maternity leave because you leave your work and your group behind for several months. Because of our biology, women obviously need more time to recover from the birth of a new child than men. After that, the care tasks can easily be split 50-50. That is what I tell everybody who is prepared to listen.’

About Wiebke Albrecht's research

With her group, Albrecht is investigating the interaction between different components and complex hybrid nanosystems. ‘How can we influence the morphology and properties of such a nanosystem at the level of a single particle?’, says Albrecht. ‘Electrons in metals are mobile and therefore very suitable for conducting electricity from A to B. However, things work differently at the nanoscale. The optical properties differ depending on the nanoparticle’s size and shape; whether it is more square, round or highly elongated instead.’ With her steadily growing group, she wants to acquire a unique electron microscope with which she can image materials at the atomic scale while these are being illuminated by laser light. That will make it possible to produce better solar cells and study chemical reactions powered by light, both of which are vital for a wide range of research at AMOLF.