IAS Staff
The core team of the Institute for Advanced Study, orchestrates the institute’s multifaceted activities, ensuring effective communication, seamless event management, and overall operational efficiency.
Huub Dijstelbloem
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Director
Julia Hoffmann
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Institute Manager
Merel Heusen
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Management Assistant
Jayshri
Murli
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Communication Advisor
Edwina Kannemeyer-Snelting
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Events & Hospitality
The IAS staff is supported by assistants and interns in various roles. They are part of the core team and help with communication, events, hospitality and administration.
Ana
Trefftz
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Events Assistant
Carina Pepene
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Communication Intern
Gianluigi Zito
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Communication Intern
Martina Nacci
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Communication Assistant
Sara Ivanova
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Events Assistant
Management Team
Tobias Blanke
Humanities
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Tobias Blanke is Distinguished University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Humanities at the University of Amsterdam. His academic background is in political philosophy and computer science. He researches artificial intelligence and big data devices and ethical questions of AI. He has written four books, over 80 journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters on subjects ranging from computer science to traditional philosophy. Tobias recently became a member of the IAS Management Team in September 2023. His extensive academic background and recent interdisciplinary work on the ethical issues and the socio-economic situation of AI, makes him a valuable asset for the management team.
Huub Dijstelbloem
Director
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Huub Dijstelbloem is Professor of Philosophy of Science, Technology and Politics and Scientific Director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the University of Amsterdam. He is co-founder of the Platform for the Ethics and Politics of Technology and one of the initiators of the movement Science in Transition.
Building bridges between science, research, society and policy-making, and methodological and conceptual innovation is central to his work.
Julia Hoffmann
Institute/Programme Manager
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Julia Hoffmann has served as Institute Manager and Programme Manager since February 2022. In close collaboration with the Director and Management Team, she oversees the Institute’s operations, strengthens partnerships, and guides programme development and strategic direction to advance its mission.
Mike Lees
Formal and Natural Sciences
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Mike Lees is an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he leads the Computational Science Lab and serves as principal investigator for complexity at its Institute for Advanced Study. His research develops data-driven computational models and artificial societies to understand complex social systems and inform policy, with applications to segregation, urban growth, crowd dynamics, mental health, and transportation.
Han van der Maas
Social and Behavioural Sciences
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Han van der Maas is professor of Psychological Methods at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. He has been involved with IAS right from the early start in 2016. In the Management Team his focus is on various organisational issues. Han advances research into applications of complex system research in the behavioural and social sciences, with a focus on two topics: attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination and opinion polarisation, for which he organised think tanks and initiated new research.
Principal Investigators
At the IAS, researchers from a wide range of fields work together on all kinds of complex scientific and societal challenges. Although the themes and projects change over time, our focus on the development and application of interdisciplinary research methods across domains stays in place as ‘the backbone’ of the institute. The following researchers strengthen our research core, focussing specifically on complexity science methods.
Mike Lees
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Associate Professor
Han van der Maas
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Professor of Psychological Methods, Department of Psychology
Fellows and Artists-in-Residence
Femke Bekius (Mar 2025 – Jun 2025)
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Assistant Professor at Radboud University
Femke’s aim is to address grand challenges by bridging mathematics and public administration through her research.
Stephan Besser (Sep 2024 – Dec 2025)
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UD (assistant professor) in Modern Dutch literature and Literary studies at the University of Amsterdam
Stephan Besser is a literary scholar with an interest in the relation of literature and science and the literary, poetic and aesthetic elements in scientific knowledge itself.
Sanne Bloemink (Jan 2024 – Dec 2025) Journalist In Residency
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Author/Groene Amsterdammer/ Uitgeverij Pluim
Sanna has authored four books and innumerable articles and pieces on various topics for several newspapers and magazines, mostly for the Dutch news weekly De Groene Amsterdammer.
Riet van Bork (Feb 2025 – Jul 2025)
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Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam
Riet’s research interest lies at the intersection of psychological methods, statistics and philosophy. Particularly, her research focuses on the theory underlying psychological measurement and its relation to the statistical models that are used as measurement models in psychology.
Igor Branchi (Feb 2025-Dec 2025)
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Senior Researcher at the Italian Institute of Health
Igor’s research mainly focuses the application of an integrative and dynamic approach to investigate the biological bases of psychiatric disorders and the relative therapeutic strategies.
Giovanna Capponi (Nov 2024-Feb 2026)
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Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, State University of Rio de Janeiro
Giovanna is an anthropologist with a specific focus on environmental anthropology and more-than-human studies. She is currently working on the collaborative epistemologies of scientific, social, and religious understandings of various environmental crises.
Jana Declercq (Sept 2025- Nov 2025)
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Professor of institutional and academic communication, University of Antwerp
Jana is a discourse analyst and interactional sociolinguistic primarily studying health discourses and health interactions. Her on-going project investigates the language that health care providers and patient use in the context of chronic pain.
Tomás Dodds (Jan 2025- Jun 2025)
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Assistant Professor in Journalism and New Media, Leiden University
Dodd’s research examines the evolving relationship between journalism and technology, with a focus on how journalists and media organizations can develop open-source tools and artificial intelligence systems that serve the public interest.
Albert Faber (Mar 2025- Dec 2025) Policy Fellow
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Coordinator, Netherlands Scientific Climate Council (WKR)
As a strategic coordinator, Albert aims to contribute to the coherence and quality of the advisory work at the Netherlands Climate Council.
Marilyn Gatica (Apr 2025- May 2025)
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Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Northeastern University London
Marilyin is deeply committed to integrating research and mentorship in computational neuroscience, with a passion for inspiring others and driving advancements that enhance patients’ quality of life.
Harpo t’Hart (May 2025- May 2026) Artist-In-Residence
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Sound-artist and artistic director of the Embassy of the North Sea
Harpo ’t Hart is a sound-artist and artistic director of the Embassy of the North Sea. In his work Harpo raises questions about the ways in which we listen to our rapidly changing environments.
Paula Helm (Mar 2025-Jul 2025) Joint DSC/IAS Fellow
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Joint Research Assistant Professor in Empirical Ethics & Data Science, University of Amsterdam
Paula Helm is an Assistant Professor specializing in the fields of Critical AI Studies and Empirical Ethics. Originally trained in Anthropology and Peace and Conflict Research, her work today is situated at the convergence of STS, Media Studies and Empirical Technology Ethics.
Sven Hirsch (Sept 2025 – Dec 2025)
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Professor at the Zürich University of Applied Sciences
Sven is a translational scientist and a passionate promoter of digitalization in health care. His scientific work focusses on the modelling of complex biomedical systems. At IAS he explored the implications of digital twins in healthcare (DTH).
Jeljer Hoekstra (May 2025 – May 2027)(Policy Fellow)
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BEUC Policy fellow, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)
As a policy fellow at the RIVM, Jeljer has a broad interest in policy problems related to health and sustainability. He is also interested in modelling human behaviour and the interaction between behaviour and policies.
Daniël Hogendoorn (Sep 2024 – July 2025)
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Sr. strategist on urban sustainability transitions, Municipality of Amsterdam
Daniël works as a policy practitioner to change the long-term urban planning and public investment strategies to get Amsterdam within planetary boundaries through different sustainability transitions.
Rami Kaplan (Sep 2024 – June 2025)
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Senior Lecturer at Tel Aviv University
Rami’s research spans global corporate capitalism, global environmental politics, corporate social responsibility, corporate power, business elite networks, sustainable finance, and the rise of anti-liberal populism.
Delfina Sol Martinez Pandiani (March 2025 – July 2025)
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Assistant Professor of Cultural Data Analysis, University of Amsterdam
Delfina’s research combines technical expertise in AI development with a critical approach to cultural analytics. She focuses on operationalizing abstract social concepts such as identity, toxicity, moderation, and surveillance, while addressing biases in AI models—particularly in computer vision—and developing solutions to ensure these systems reflect diverse societal values.
Giulia Dal Maso (Apr 2025 – May 2025)
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Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at University of Venice Ca’ Foscari/ National University of Singapore
Giulia’s research concerns the impact of finance and the working of financial markets on the social world. In her work, she has analyzed the way financial logics have been historically applied in post socialist contexts, particularly focusing on China and Eastern Europe.
Yuko Munakata (Sep 2025 – Feb 2026)
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Professor at the University of California, Davis
Yuko’s research uses behavioral, electrophysiological, computational, and cross-cultural approaches to study the mechanisms supporting executive functions and variations in thinking observed across development. At IAS she tested for an accelerated developmental shift from exploration to exploitation in response to early experiences of adversity, as a potential general mechanism to explain wide-ranging effects of adversity.
Lourens Waldorp (Nov 2024 – Apr 2025)
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Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam
Lourens studies statistical and mathematical modelling in Psychology, with a focus on networks as dynamical systems. The main question he investigated at IAS was how to properly address polarization and segregation (using physics-based models) in a single model.
Associates
Associates are researchers at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) who have expertise in various academic disciplines and believe in interdisciplinary, collaborative research. They are involved in developing our research portfolio, increasing our visibility, and liaising between the IAS and the UvA’s faculties.
Marija Bartl
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Faculty: Faculty of Law
Focus: Transnational Private Law
Claudi
Bockting
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Faculty: Amsterdam UMC
Focus: Mental Health
Danny
Borsboom
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Faculty: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Focus: Psychological Methods
Jeff Diamanti
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Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Focus: Philosophy and Cultural Analysis
Iris van Domselaar
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Faculty: Faculty of Law
Focus: Legal Philosophy and Legal Ethics
Jo Ellis-Monaghan
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Faculty: Faculty of Science
Focus:
Mathematics
Albert
Feilzer
Serena Ferente
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Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Focus:
Medieval History
Rivke Jaffe
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Faculty: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Focus: Urban Geography
Cees Kleverlaan
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Faculty: ACTA
Focus: Dentistry and Healthcare
Ans
Kolk
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Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business
Focus: Corporate social responsibility
Julia Noordegraaf
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Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Focus: Digital Heritage
André de
Roos
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Faculty: Faculty of Science
Focus: Theoretical Ecology
Colin
Russell
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Faculty: Amsterdam UMC
Shaul
Shalvi
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Faculty: Faculty of Economics and Business
Focus: Economics
Floris
Vermeulen
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Faculty: Faculty of Social and Behavioural Science
Focus: Challenges to Democratic Representation
Claes de
Vreese
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Faculty: Executive Staff
Focus: AI and Society & Political Communication
Board of Advisors
Angelique Berg
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Director-General of Statistics Netherlands (CBS)
Ben Feringa
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Full Professor and Jacobus van’t Hoff Distinguished Professor of Molecular Science at the University of Groningen / Winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2016)
Femke Halsema
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Mayor of the City of Amsterdam
David Krakauer
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President and William H. Miller Professor of Complex Systems at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico
Helga Nowotny
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Professor Emerita Social Studies of Science at ETH Zurich / Former President of the European Research Council
Gabriela Ramos
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Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO