Ruth is a PhD candidate at the Erasmus SYNC lab. The title of her research project is ‘Teaching for Purpose: encouraging purpose development in adolescents through an integrated approach in classroom settings‘. Purpose is cultivated through a process of discovery and exploring unique interests, skills and values. One of the key developmental tasks during adolescence is developing this sense of purpose. The aim of Ruth’s research is to explore – together with students and teachers – how classrooms and schools can become an environment in which the development of purpose in adolescents is further encouraged.
Ruth has a background as a sociologist for developing countries, with a focus on education. Throughout her career she has been involved in working with beneficiaries to design projects and approaches that lead to positive youth development, mainly within educational settings. She has done this in various developing countries (Bangladesh, Vietnam, The Gambia) as well as in (international) schools.
What she thoroughly enjoys in these settings is the great emphasis on the involvement and participation of community members and beneficiaries, as well as the willingness to experiment and try new approaches in order to create a positive impact. In her work it has always been critical to bring in the most recent insights from research and connect it to the reality on the ground – an approach that aligns very well with that of the SYNC-lab.
Upon her return to The Netherlands Ruth started working as a school leader at the bilingual secondary school – Wolfert Tweetalig – in the centre of Rotterdam. In this position Ruth emphasised the need to develop an environment in which the socio-emotional development of young people serves as the foundation for a conducive learning environment. It is during this time – that Ruth developed the desire to take a deeper dive into this topic. From her own experience of teacher-training, as well as through research, it is clear that there is still a great gap between what is known about the development (and possibilities) of the adolescent brain and how this is translated into the training of our teachers and the practices in schools.
Ruth returned to teaching (Maatschappijleer & Global Politics) in the same school and approached the SYNC-lab to explore the opportunity of collaborating on a research project in which we can bridge the gap between knowledge and insights produced through research in adolescent neuroscience and the practice of education. Ruth managed to secure a grant to conduct PhD research ( the ‘NWO promotiebeurs voor leraren‘), whilst continuing to teach.
Yolijn is the project coordinator for the Gravitation program ‘Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)’. She facilitates the Steering Committee, oversees all functions, provides administration and weekly duties, schedules meetings, and facilitates communication between the Steering Committee and all applicants. Yolijn has a background in psychology and obtained her Master in Youth and Adolescent psychology at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2022. Her master thesis focused on the development of cognitive control in elementary schoolchildren with internalizing symptoms, and she obtained some experience in a large data program, the Generation R Study. Yolijn likes societal engagement and working with (young) people.
Kitty is the knowledge broker for the ‘Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)’ project. Her goal is to bridge the gap between research and society, by facilitating the exchange of knowledge and orchestrating meetings to foster collaboration. She works closely with researchers from seven universities, assisting them in involving society in their work. Additionally, Kitty is responsible for managing the visibility of the GUTS project. This involves overseeing the social media strategy, maintaining the website, and managing the project’s newsletter. With a background in cognitive neuropsychology and a master’s in Youth Development & Social Change, she brings her experience and passion for youth participation, diversity, and inclusion to the team.
Mark Mulder is Data Manager for the SYNC Lab and focuses on data structuring and open science practices. He is currently working on the structuring multiple datasets (such as Braintime and The Urban Rotterdam Project) and furthering the open science capabilities within the lab.
He is also Data Manager for Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) research program, where he coordinates data storage and data sharing between nine institutions. He is currently working on setting up database structures and storage/software solutions for the massive ten-year project, with the intent of facilitating collaboration between the collaborating institutions.
Mark has a background in psychology and obtained his Master in Economic and Consumer Psychology at Leiden University in 2019. His master thesis focused on the influence of institutionalization of compensation and having a voice in the spending of the compensation on public acceptance of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects. After graduating, he worked as a research assistant at the department of Health, Medical and Neuropsychology in Leiden and as a lecturer for the Urban Studies program. He is supervised by Eveline Crone and Eduard Klapwijk
Simone Mulder is a Data Manager for the SYNC lab and the Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS) research program, with special interests in open science, health care, programming, and (meta)data visualizations. She coordinates data storage, processing, and sharing between the nine collaborating institutions that are part of the ten-year GUTS project. Simone is currently working on developing protocols and pipelines to ensure a flexible and accessible data infrastructure.
Simone obtained her research master’s degree in clinical and health psychology in 2021. She previously worked as a research data specialist for the Leiden-CID project, focussing on the implementation and development of the Leiden-CID data infrastructure. She also developed a long-term strategy to make data flexible and accessible to other researchers.
Jaïr is a research assistant at the SYNC lab and is involved in our longitudinal Braintime project on adolescent brain development. At this phase in the project (2023), participants are young adults. Therefore, another data collection wave is currently underway to study the relation between neurodevelopmental and behavioral trajectories and well-being later in life.
As a research assistant, Jaïr is involved primarily with data collection including MRI scans, behavioral experiments, and questionnaires. He is also concerned with the planning and screening of participants, as well as other projects within the SYNC lab.
Jaïr has a background is in psychology and neuroscience, and completed a Research Master in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at Maastricht University in 2021. Currently, he is also enrolled in the Engaging Public Issues program, a sociology master’s at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is on course to graduate in 2023, and hopes to combine both his academic backgrounds to pursue his interests in neurosociology, neuroethics, and mental health policy.
Caroline Elkhoury is a research assistant at the SYNC lab and is involved in the Gravitation program ‘Growing Up Together in Society (GUTS)’. As a research assistant, Caroline is primarily involved with data collection including MRI scans, behavioral experiments, and questionnaires.
Caroline holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Education and Child studies. Her master thesis focused on the relation between executive functioning, gender, and the effectiveness of prediction-based learning. During her masters, Caroline worked as a research intern at the Leiden Institute of Brain and Cognition (LIBC), where she gained her first experience with neuroimaging in young adolescents. After completing her masters, she worked as a research assistant at the Leiden Consortium on Individual Development (L-CID), a large longitudinal twin study on brain development in childhood and adolescence.
Dimitri Mau Asam is Art director and graphic designer responsible for the entire branding of SYNC lab and the Young Xperts platform. In close collaboration with Glenn Windhouwer for the construction of the website SYNC lab and Young Xperts.
Yara Toenders is a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus SYNC lab. She is interested in mental health during development from childhood to young adulthood.
Yara previously did her PhD at the Centre for Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne in Australia. During her PhD she focused on depression in young people, more specifically on the onset of depression and the heterogeneity of depression. She was also involved in the international ENIGMA MDD consortium, a worldwide effort to combine data to increase our understanding of depression.
Before her PhD, Yara obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and finished a Neurobiology research master at the University in Amsterdam. During this Master she first gained experience with neuroimaging in young people. At the Amsterdam Medical Centre, she studied brain connectivity in children with a posttraumatic stress disorder.
Ilse van de Groep is a Healthy Start Fellow working in the SYNC lab and the Clinical Psychology department of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research mainly focuses on the behavioral and neural development of antisocial behavior in young adulthood, and on strategies to support and motivate young adults with antisocial behavior and addiction problems to pursue their own long-term goals.
Ilse is passionate about finding mechanistic explanations for complex social behavior and greatly enjoys the most creative aspects of research and science communication. She often uses her creative skills to share newly acquired knowledge with a wider audience (e.g. blogging, workshops, e-magazines) or to create platforms and supporting media to enable this (e.g. websites, graphic design, photography).
Ilse has a background in Social and Health Psychology and completed her research Master in Utrecht in 2016. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at the Experimental Psychopathology lab in Utrecht. In her PhD project (2018-2022), Ilse examined several mechanisms that underlie distinct developmental trajectories of social and antisocial behavior in emerging adulthood, with a specific focus on the neural correlates of self-concept, vicarious reward learning, social evaluation and aggression regulation. She was supervised by prof. Eveline Crone, dr. Marieke Bos, prof. Lucres Nauta-Jansen and prof. Arne Popma. In April 2023, she defended her dissertation called “Resisting, Desisting or Persisting? Neural Correlates of Antisocial and Psychopathic Pathways in Early Adulthood”.
