Committee

Marieke van der Maden
Chairman | Neurobiology (M)
My name is Marieke van der Maden and I am a first-year Master student. I joined the committee because I enjoy learning about all kinds of research in the molecular sciences field, as well as the medical biology field, and this then of course also involves all the extremes! This is my third symposium already, and actually the first one that I am organising as a chairman. The theme of this year is “Extreme Sciences”, and I am very enthusiastic about the broad range of research topics and speakers that we collected for this symposium! I hope that the students will leave the symposium enjoyed and inspired, full of ideas for their own future research.

Jard Korma
Secretary | Molecular Life Sciences (B)
My name is Jard, a first-year bachelor student of Molecular Life Sciences. I joined this committee at the start of this year and also became secretary, without really knowing what a symposium was about. What I can tell from my current experience is that organizing a symposium is really fun, especially with such a nice committee. Also, it helps to look beyond the borders of my bachelor and I get to meet lots of new people. This year’s topic, extreme sciences, is especially fun, since you can go in a lot of direction and pick a lot of different topics. Altogether, I think this year’s symposium is going to be a (extreme) blast.

Julia Niehaus
Treasurer | Medical Epigenomics (M)
I am Julia Niehaus, a first-year Medical Epigenomics student. I joined the committee two years ago and am the treasurer. Creating this symposium was a great experience, especially as our theme “Extreme Sciences” gave us so many different topics and speakers to choose from. Needless to say, I am very excited to attend this symposium, listen to the speakers we have invited and look forward to learn about ‘extremes‘ in different fields of research.

Elin Slagt
Head of Promotion | Chemistry (B)
My name is Elin Slagt and I am a first year chemistry student. This is my first Symposium to organize. I became the head of promotion, because I have an creative mind. I am pleased to promote the Sigma Symposium, because I think it is a great way for students to look a step further than the present and to discover what they find interesting in the work field. This years theme, extreme sciences, is very broad and therefore, the chance that the students will find a topic interesting is very big. I look forward to see all the inspired students at the Symposium.

Kiki Mes
Board Contact | Chemistry (B)
I am Kiki Mes, second year Chemistry student. I joined the Symposium committee this year as a Board contact. I started to love this committee very quickly because of the combination of educational and fun parts. I think the theme Extreme Sciences is a theme that fits all students, which makes it really exciting! There should be something interesting for all our students and visitors in the lectures. Reaching from extremely beautiful to extremely dangerous, the Symposium will be a day full of learning and fun.

Carla Vintila
General Member | Molecular Life Sciences (B)
My name is Carla Vintila, I am a second-year student of Molecular Life Science, and I am thrilled to be part of the committee organizing this year’s symposium. This year’s symposium is all about “Extreme Sciences,” which means we’re exploring some of the wildest, coolest, and most fascinating research happening in the world of science. We are talking about everything from extremely tiny things like nanotechnology to extremely powerful nuclear fission, and even extremely beautiful things like mineral formation. We are covering the full spectrum of extreme science topics, so you can expect to be blown away by the amazing discoveries and innovations that are happening in the field. With this symposium I hope that our participants will go home with new knowledge, inspiration, and a curiosity to pursue their interests further in science.

Adrian Belichenov
General Member | Chemistry (B)
My name is Adrian Belichenov and I am a first year bachelor chemistry student. This is my first year in the committee and I joined because the symposium sounded like a very fun and meaningful event, which I wanted to be a part of. Taking part in the planning with the rest of the committee members was a ton of fun and I very much hope that this year’s event is going to live up to the expectations!

Cristina Trandafir
General Member | Molecular Life Sciences (B)