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UMagazine

UMagazine offers an insight into the key developments and achievements in education and research at Maastricht University. The magazine is printed three times a year.

The June edition includes a portrait of university vice president Nick Bos. After 25 years at UM, he is now set to retire. The man who initially aspired to an academic career discovered that his true gift lay in facilitating other academics.

Konrad Kollnig received an AiNed Fellowship grant for his research on how we can enforce laws related to AI, privacy and competition. “The responsible authorities are usually made up of lawyers and economists. Great people with good intentions, without a doubt—but if you want to regulate technology, you also need experts in those fields.”

With her postdoctoral research, Carolien Bouvier hopes to help museums conserve art by revealing its underlying chemical composition. Even paintings that are hundreds of years old are subject to ongoing chemical processes, Bouvier says.

According to Nancy Bocken, professor of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, society is stuck on a one-way highway of value destruction. She shows how we can shift gears from linear consumption to a circular economy.

Experience shows that anybody can fall victim to a miscarriage of justice. With a new database, Jenny Schell-Leugers is investigating the extent of the problem in Europe.

What determines a person’s financial wellbeing? Jenna Barrett conducted PhD research on this subject under the supervision of Lisa Brüggen. And the KidzCollege has been linking primary schools with the university for 15 years. How did this initiative come about?

This time, Soul Kitchen offers a peek into the kitchen of Pieter du Plessis, who was born and raised in South Africa. And we meet alum Saara Martinmäki, who came to UM to pursue a master’s in Clinical Psychology. She now conducts research on the wellbeing of humanitarian aid workers and advises international organisations on how best to support their employees.

Read about all this and more in the June issue of UMagazine!

UMagazine stories

  • If you ever find yourself detained by the police—even when innocent—get a lawyer and keep quiet. This is the most important lesson Jenny Schell-Leugers passes on to her students. Don’t make the mistake of thinking, “I’ve nothing to hide and can explain myself,” the legal psychologist says...

  • Should AI be allowed to manipulate us on a daily basis? Should it be trained on people’s data without their knowledge or consent? How can we enforce laws concerning AI, privacy and competition? In RegTech4AI, Konrad Kollnig brings together AI and the law to answer these and other questions. 

  • Is the Einstein Telescope coming to the Euregion? As yet, nobody knows. But if the telescope is built here, it will offer many opportunities for valorisation, according to Han Dols. Dols is head of business development at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva. He delivered the...

More news items
  • Saara Martinmäki

    Carer of carers

    Alum Saara Martinmäki volunteered for the Red Cross, and during high school helped drowning survivors overcome their fear of water. She came to Maastricht University in 2015 to pursue a master’s in Clinical Psychology. Today, she conducts research on the wellbeing of humanitarian aid workers and...

  • “Do you make lists too?” This was one of the first questions that professor of Financial Services Lisa Brüggen asked PhD candidate Jenna Barrett. Her affirmative reply sealed the deal. An inspiring and fruitful partnership ensued, resulting in Barrett’s dissertation ‘Money matters: Understanding and...