- Eline van Bloois
Pint of Science Amsterdam event 2023 - Meet the speakers
This year, we are looking forward to coming together once again for Pint23, which will showcase a series of remarkable scientific talks at local bars in Amsterdam on May 22-24. We are thrilled to offer a sneak peek of this year's Pint23 festival!
Tiny plastics, Big impact: Paving the way to a Sustainable Future
We are kicking off this year festival on Monday 22nd of May @Checkpoint Charlie with an event about microplastics. During this event our 3 speakers, Tim Bulters, Maria Hayder and Ritva Krist, will tell us more about (micro-)plastics and ongoing research in this area, as well as give us tips on how we all can contribute to a more sustainable future.
Do you believe that small things cannot have a big impact? Well, at least regarding plastics you might want to reconsider. Tiny pieces of plastics, also called microplastics, have been found in places where one would not expect them to be - for example in food. As there is very little known on whether and to what extent it could affect us, we opt for precaution. But what is the greatest source of microplastic? How can we measure it? And what can we, as consumers, do about it? If you want to contribute to a more sustainable future, this talk is for you!
-Tim Bulters
Tim Bulters has a background in Biology and after his studies he worked as a teacher at the University of Amsterdam and as a sustainability consultant and Circular Economy expert at a regional NGO. Since December he is working for TNO at the department of circular plastics. Within this department he specifically works on microplastics and how to measure, model, mitigate and avoid them.
Maria Hayder has a background in biotechnology and analytical chemistry and she is conducting her PhD at the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (University of Amsterdam) where she focuses on the characterization and analysis of nanoplastics distributions in the environment.
With a background in environmental psychology, Ritva Krist is since 2020 part of the Northern Netherlands Plastic Foundation (NNPF) team. The project actively promotes a world where individuals handle plastics and packaging in a responsible manner. In 2021, she conducted an internship at the Clean Ocean Project. Ritva is currently a marketing manager for traceless materials, working on plastic-free biomaterials, as well as an environmental marketing consultant.
Revolutionizing Society: The Power of Artificial Intelligence
On the 23rd of May you can find us again @Checkpoint Charlie, this time to discuss about the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on society.
Epidemics are disastrous for society. We have seen the consequences of COVID19. Can decentralized algorithms help to understand and possibly contact trace the virus? I have studied multiple algorithms for contact tracing that can mitigate a pandemic and analyzed which algorithms could be most practical regarding the required amount of communication.
- Rob Romijnders
Rob Romijnders is a PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam investigating decentralized computing, whether computers can collectively 'learn' about new topics without one computer accruing all the information.
Chatbots are technologies that communicate with their users via natural human language. They become increasingly sophisticated (if we think for example of large language models and ChatGPT) but conversational technologies have been around for much longer. I study how humans perceive these kinds of technologies and decisions made by algorithms more broadly. More specifically, I focus on how chatbots and the information they are providing are not neutral – most often they are designed in a way that they try to influence us in a certain way. But what does that mean for our communication with them?
-Carolin Ischen
Carolin Ischen is an Assistant Professor in Persuasive Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. In her research, she focuses on the characteristics of non-human communication partners and how these influence human interactions with them, as well as the persuasive consequences of these interactions.
Breaking the Bias: Addressing Gender Inequality in Healthcare
For our last event on the 24th of May we move to the @De Nieuwe Anita for an event that is all about breaking the bias, addressing gender inequality in healthcare. Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on gender disparities in healthcare and the persistent misinterpretation of women. Read more about our amazing speakers below.
This session will be looking at the challenges of women and men during their carriers. Is there a difference in academia and industry? If we know what the challenges are, what can we do about it? We will put our own experiences into the focus, learn from it and exchange opportunities to make things better.
- Julia Lischke
Julia Lischke is a Program Manager at Lygature, where she focuses on data management for large multistakeholder partnerships in pharma and health. Her scientific background is in technical biology and system dynamics. As a researcher in her home country Germany she performed research in the field of personalised medicine at the University of Stuttgart and later worked at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on microbial communities. Throughout pursuing her still young career she became a mother of 2 small kids and mentored many younger women in their early professional life.
There is a persistent health gap between men and women. Several international indexes show that women worldwide have poorer health than men and less access to healthcare services and medicines. Even in the Netherlands. Eventhough women live longer then men, figures from the Dutch Emancipation Monitor show that women's life expectancy without physical limitations is shorter than men's, at 70.8 years compared to 73.5 years. Compared to men, they also feel less healthy and experience physical and have more often psychological problems. 'FemTech' -- apps, products and services for women's (reproductive) health -- promises to contribute positively to women's health, filling the gaps in medical care. The Rathenau Institute studied whether, and if so, how health technologies specific for women can reduce the differences in health (care) between men and women.
-Jaswina Elahi
Jaswina Elahi, is a social researcher and an expert on compromise digital culture, social inequality, cultural development and citizenship. She held positions at various universities in the Netherlands and the UK. From 2007 to 2011, she was a Professor of Citizenship and Cultural Dynamics at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam, after which she committed full-time to the research agency Urban Paradoxes, founded by her in 2004.
On average, men are taller than women and weigh more, and the dimensions of their hearts and blood vessels are also slightly bigger. When men or women require surgery on their heart, the criteria for undergoing surgery are however the same for men and women. Is this OK? Let’s take the example of patients whose main artery emerging from the heart (aorta) is abnormally large (thoracic aorta aneurysm). The larger your aorta is, the bigger the risk it tears or ruptures, which implies almost sudden death. Patients describe a thoracic aortic aneurysm often as walking around with a ticking time bomb in your chest. During this talk we will explore male-female differences in thoracic aortic aneurysm: are their differences between men and women in disease diagnosis, progression, and outcome? Do they get the same surgical treatment? And how do they cope with this horrible disease?
-Hanneke Takkenberg
Hanneke Takkenberg is a Professor of Management Education focusing on Women in Business at the Rotterdam School of Management. She is co-executive director of the Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO) at RSM where she leads the centre’s research initiatives. Since 2012, she has been Professor of Clinical Decision Making in Cardio-Thoracic Interventions at the Erasmus University Medical Center (MC). At the Erasmus MC, her current research focuses on prognosis and clinical and shared decision making in cardiovascular interventions, with special attention to male-female differences. Prof. Takkenberg’s own research at RSM broadly focuses on network analysis, with a particular focus on women’s organisations and personal networks.
Registration
Excited to hear more and discuss about these interesting topics while drinking a cold beer? Don’t miss the opportunity to register for the events of your interest below, because we have a limited number of spots!
Hope to see you there!
Cheers,
Pint of Science team Amsterdam
