HomeNewsLast week: vote for the nominated UT scientists in Viva400

Last week: vote for the nominated UT scientists in Viva400

Five female University of Twente scientists have been included in the VIVA400: an annual list of 400 successful and inspiring women compiled by Viva magazine and separated into four different categories. Sabine Siesling and Ruchi Bansal have been included in the category Healthcare & Education, while Monica Morales Masis, Anna Sperotto and Cristina Zaga each earned a spot in the Tech & Innovation category.

VOTE NOW!

You can cast your vote for our University of Twente scientists until 1 December 2020. You may vote once per category for the woman you believe is most successful, passionate or inspiring. Sign in with your Facebook, LinkedIn or Viva account. The number of votes and a professional jury will determine the lucky recipient of the renowned VIVA400 award.

For the Viva400
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Voting is open until December 1st

The five scientists are:

Ruchi Bansal | Health & Education

The prevalence of diabetes is rapidly increasing. Diabetic patients have large and painful wounds that do not heal well but can be healed effectively using light therapy. Light therapy is already being used in a variety of ways, but Ruchi is researching options for healing wounds using red light. Thanks to the Pioneers in Healthcare Fund, the treatment can now be tested on living beings for the first time. Ruchi’s team is also exploring how light therapy could help manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Ruchi had already received a prestigious VENI grant and a TKI-HTSM grant for her research focusing on innovative therapies for the treatment of alcohol-and-diabetes-associated chronic liver diseases. 

Monica Morales-Masis | Tech & Innovation

UT researcher Monica uses her CREATE project to find methods for discovering new and sustainable hybrid materials that can be used in products such as efficient solar cells and LEDs. This is important as the currently most efficient hybrid material still contains lead and is not stable enough in the long term. For her research, Monica received the ERC Starting Grant. (photo credit: Frans Nikkels) 

Sabine Siesling | Health & Education

Sabine is a born team leader with a tremendous passion for conducting breast cancer research and guiding young potential researchers to the top. As a clinical epidemiologist and president of the breast cancer team for the Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL), Sabine aims to contribute to higher-quality breast cancer care. As a professor at the University of Twente she uses questions from daily practice, such as: what care do we give, why, when and with what outcome? How do you organise healthcare and how can you make decisions together based on prediction models and data from the Netherlands Cancer Registry? This has earned her two Best Teacher Awards and multiple nominations for the Central Education Award at the University of Twente.

Anna Sperotto | Tech & Innovation

Anna is a research scientist in the field of network measurements and security, and she is currently studying all aspects of the internet and their relation to security. Her research is aimed at preventing and limiting attacks, specifically DoS attacks. Anna is one of the people behind the interactive DNS measurement platform OpenINTEL, which won the Dutch Data Prize. This year she won the prize for Best PhD Supervisor at the University of Twente.

Cristina Zaga | Tech & Innovation

Cristina (Design Production and Management Departiment and DesignLab UT) is an assistant professor on a mission to design technology in a responsible way and involve people in the process. She develops technology and make it responsible, desirable for the future we want to live in. She has innovated the field of robotics going beyond social robot to robotic things that give agency and control back to people. For example she involved children from Twente and New York State in the design of robot technology to support prosocial behavior and collaboration.  Her goal is to develop technology that responsibly support education, and human flourishing without substituting itself to humans or causing more issues than it solves, but giving back control to humans. She believes in a future designed for and with society. Cristina has won many accolades for her work. Lately she was selected by Design United for the Eindhoven Design Week to present her work in responsible robotics and she was chosen as one of Google’s Women Techmakers. She was also a mentor at one of the largest hackathons in Europe.

VIVA400

Every year, VIVA400 offers 400 successful women a unique platform. For the thirteenth time they will give special recognition to successful women in science, and they hope that the 400 role models will inspire all women in the Netherlands. Women were given the opportunity to nominate themselves or someone else in the categories Business & Creation, Healthcare & Education, Tech & Innovation and Sport & Spirit. The Mother of All Lists has already been published, and you can now vote for your favourite VIVA400 woman. The number of votes and a professional jury will determine the lucky recipient of the renowned VIVA400 award.

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