The TGS Research Honours PhD Award for Twente Doctoral Top Talent 2014 has been awarded to Sophie van Baalen, master's student Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society (CTIT). She accepted the Award on Monday 1 September during the Opening of the Academic Year of the University of Twente. The prize awarded to Van Baalen consists of a cheque of 2,500 euros, which she may spend on an educational programme or exchange during her doctoral research. She explains what she's doing in this video (dutch).
Van Baalen: "I want to improve the work of doctors by means of a philosophical analysis. It's very difficult for doctors and researchers to work together and develop technologies that are applicable in practice. Doctors don't always know how complicated the engineering and technology is. And engineers don't always have a comprehensive image of the complex practice in which a doctor operates. That is what I want to analyse: what are the differences in their way of thinking? Consequently, I want to give both doctors and researchers the means to cooperate more easily. The technology should be made in such a way that it's really of use to the doctor and that the practice is improved by it. In addition, I want to work on the development of medical imaging techniques myself."
Van Baalen has a background in Technical Medicine and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society. The jury was very impressed by her personality and her original approach to a 'pressing problem'. Additionally, the jury really appreciates that her proposal is based on ideas that were originally developed by Van Baalen herself.
Van Baalen has been working on her PhD project at the Philosophy of Science in Practice chair since 1 April. She is combining a field of study from the Technical Medicine programme (the development of imaging techniques for clinical practice) with philosophy of science. The PhD project is funded by TGS, institute MIRA and ASPASIA via Mieke Boon. Van Baalen is working at BMS. Her promotors are Mieke Boon en Bennie ten Haken.
Twente Graduate School
The Twente Graduate School was founded in 2009 and has about nineteen different MSc and PhD programmes in partnership with the UT research institutes and departments.. TGS focuses on outstanding students who aspire to careers as researchers. The nineteen programmes contain routes in order to already presort for a doctoral research during your master's.
