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A rectangle incised with diagonal and straight lines, hewn from limestone quarried in France, a thrilling strategy game can look deceptively simple. The Romans used glass, bone or earthenware pieces. Players took turns trying to block each other’s pieces; whoever did it in the least number of moves.

On 4-5 February, I was very proud to celebrate with over 150 colleagues and friends the 10th Anniversary of AMIBM with a symposium: “A Decade of Biobased Materials.”

In primary school, his nickname was whirlwind —and that same energy comes across during the interview. “I’ve never been diagnosed, but I do think I have ADHD,” says the cheerful physics professor Marcel Merk. “And I’m gripped by the question: why is there something rather than nothing?“

As of September 2026, the new Responsible Data Science master’s programme at Maastricht University prepares students to become professionals who deploy artificial intelligence and other digital technologies with respect for both people and the planet.

A calculus course is not the obvious place for sustainability. Yet Circular Engineering student Leoni Haller helped rethink her mathematics course with sustainability-related examples, showing how calculus formulas can be taught in a real-world context.

Ten years ago, an ambitious vision took shape: the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM), a European, cross-border centre of expertise determined to revolutionise how we approach materials, sustainability, and innovation.

The UM Medallion of Honour and the first FSE Frank Thuijsman Award; Maastricht University ensured that Frank Thuijsman did not depart quietly into retirement. Thuijsman is the founding father of KE@Work and was involved in the beginning of English-language instruction and project based education.

As of January 2026, Nava Tintarev, Professor of Explainable AI at Maastricht University’s Department of Advanced Computing Sciences (DACS), will join the boards of two of the Netherlands’ most prestigious computer science platforms.

Professor Ron Heeren, distinguished university professor at Maastricht University (UM) and director of the Maastricht MultiModal Molecular Imaging Institute (M4i), was appointed as a fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE) on Thursday 11 December.

Maastricht University is taking a practical step to support early-career teachers: open education and digital literacy will be built more firmly into the BKO/UTQ.