Judith is a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus SYNC lab. She is interested in how adolescents are affected by and can contribute to societal challenges (e.g., climate change, social inequality). Her goal is to contribute to research that recognizes adolescents’ potential to be transformative frontrunners in society.
During her PhD project (2020-2024, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University) Judith studied how interventions that harness adolescents’ motives for autonomy and peer status can promote their climate-friendly behavior. Before her PhD, Judith obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology (2018) and research master’s degree in Development and Socialisation in Childhood and Adolescence (2020, cum laude) at Utrecht University.
Sophie Sweijen is a postdoctoral researcher in the Erasmus SYNC lab. Using her background in developmental cognitive neuroscience, Sophie wants to make societal impact as a scientific researcher to help young individuals thrive in their social environment. Sophie works on the collaborative project PraatPower with MIND Us – an initiative focused on mental health among young individuals – in which societal dialogues will be held aimed to empower youth and mental health.
Under supervision of prof. dr. Eveline Crone, dr. Suzanne van de Groep, and dr. Lysanne te Brinke, Sophie worked on her PhD from 2021 to 2025 (defense planned on September 12, 2025) on prosocial behavior and societal contributions during adolescence. During her PhD, Sophie coordinated data collection of two longitudinal project. First, she coordinated and supervised the third wave of the behavioral and MRI data collection of the Brainlinks project, in which the aim was to examine the behavioral and neural development of prosocial behavior across adolescence. Second, together with the research team, Sophie set up and coordinated the online behavioral Urban Rotterdam Project, from the first wave in May 2020 to the ninth wave in October 2024. This project was initially set up to monitor young individuals’ wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has subsequently been extended into a project consisting of nine waves across four years to monitor the development, wellbeing, and societal engagement among young people in the Rotterdam area.
During her PhD, Sophie also worked as a researcher on two projects commissioned by the Ministery of OCW, in which she implemented the YoungXperts method. First, she collaborated with Trimbos, ECIO, Pharos, and Utrecht University in a project on performance pressure among mbo-students. In addition, Sophie collaborated with ECBO to examine the needs of mbo-students for equal opportunities in their education. In these projects, Sophie organized focus groups with students and implemented a new participatory research tool, which was developed in co-creation with youth (workers), to come up with ‘take actions’ (solutions) together with young individuals themselves to improve their wellbeing.
I am interested in how environmental factors contribute to individual differences in adolescents’ social-cognitive development and well-being. As part of my postdoc within GUTS, I will investigate how socioeconomic status relates to adolescents’ daily stress and resilience, using experience sampling methods (ESM).
During my PhD, I studied the bidirectional interplay between the peer environment and the development of empathy, perspective-taking, and self-regulation in early adolescence, combining behavioral tasks and neuroimaging techniques. Towards the end of my PhD, I started to also work as a lecturer. During this time, I discovered how much I enjoy working with students and sharing my passion for research methodology and developmental psychology.
In my current postdoctoral project, we will develop an impact pathway in co-creation with youth who have had contact with the police, applying a youth participatory action research (Y-PAR) framework throughout all empirical and design phases. Drawing on neurocognitive background knowledge, the project aims to identify which high-stress environments are most suitable for experiential learning to learn to flexibly regulate emotions through VR-based biofeedback training.
In my prior postdoc project, I investigated the association between mental and physical wellbeing of early adolescents through youth perspectives, using co-creation to develop intervention programs aimed at fostering both aspects of wellbeing. A central focus of this work was the identification of barriers and facilitators shaping wellbeing-related behaviors.
During my PhD I identified underlying mechanisms contributing to individual differences in brain structure, developmental changes, and function. I also explored the effects of an enriched and deprived environment on the direction of brain developmental trajectories from middle childhood to early adolescence (aged 7-14).
Ties Fakkel is a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus SYNC Lab. His broader focus is on understanding how adolescents end up with a similar or different socioeconomic position compared to their parents. Specifically, Ties studies socioeconomic differences in adolescent psychosocial competencies and examines how these competencies contribute to socioeconomic outcomes in early adulthood, such as educational attainment, occupational status, and income.
At the SYNC Lab, Ties is primarily involved with The Urban Rotterdam project and YoungXperts. These projects provide unique quantitative and qualitative data to understand what young people in Rotterdam perceive as causes of poverty. Rotterdam has a relatively high number of people living in poverty, but Rotterdam also has a relatively high number of young people. Their insights have the potential to foster a more sustainable and resilient future for our city.
Besides collecting data on important topics, Ties is also highly motivated to disseminate novel research findings. Through his work at the SYNC Lab – but also through his initiatives at Addendum – Ties regularly strives to make science more tangible for a broader audience. According to Ties, co-creation is at the heart of new wave social science, a vision broadly shared within the SYNC Lab.
