The Board of Recommendation advices the committee on speakers, sponsors and general affairs. The board consists of ten members, either related to the city or university of Leiden or Delft, or with a profession in the Life Sciences.
Tim van der Hagen studied Applied Physics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He obtained his PhD at the TU Delft in 1989 on monitoring boiling water reactors. He has been Full Professor of Reactor Physics since 1999 and was the director of the Reactor Institute Delft for seven years. In 2010 he became the dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences. Tim was a member of numeral important supervisory boards like the national Advisory council for science, technology and innovation (AWTI), Holland Particle Therapy Centre Holland (PTC) and the Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland (ECN). In January 2018 Tim was appointed Rector Magnificus of the TU Delft which he combines with chairing the Executive Board.
Prof. dr. ir. Hester Bijl – Rector Magnificus, Leiden University
Hester Bijl is Rector Magnificus of Leiden University. She holds a Master’s degree in Technical Applied Mathematics from the TU Delft and also received her PhD there in 1999. Furthermore, she holds a MSc in English Language and Literature from Leiden University. From 1999 until 2016, she worked at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at the TU Delft where she became Full Professor and where she was Dean of the faculty. Then in 2016, she moved to Leiden University to become Vice-Rector Magnificus and Full Professor at the Mathematical Institute. In addition she is a member of several supervisory boards of organisations such as TNO, and Leiden Bio Science Park. In 2021 Hester Bijl succeeded Carel Stolker, and she became the first female Rector Magnificus of Leiden University.
Peter Heijkoop – Mayor of Leiden
Prof. dr. Marcellus Ubbink – Scientific Director Leiden Institute of Chemistry
Marcellus Ubbink studied Biology at Utrecht University. In 1994 he received his PhD from Leiden University. After working at Cambridge University as a post-doc, he returned to Leiden in 1997. Since 2010, he is a Full Professor in Protein Chemistry. He was Program Director of the bachelor Life Science and Technology from 2019 to 2022, when he became the scientific director of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry. His research interests are in structure, dynamics, activity and evolution of enzymes.
Dr. Marco van Eijk – Programme Director Life Science & Technology
Marco van Eijk is known primarily as a lecturer among the students of the Life Science & Technology (LST) program. For the past year and a half, I have been the program director of the LST bachelor’s degree. After completing my studies in Medical Biology at Utrecht University, I successfully conducted doctoral research at the Department of Cell Biology and Histology at the University of Amsterdam. During my doctoral research, I studied the regulation of apoptosis in germinal center B cells isolated from tonsils. After a brief stint at two companies, I pursued research in Medical Biochemistry at the AMC, focusing more on lysosomes and how these organelles deal with an excess of fats, with an emphasis on sphingolipids. The disrupted macrophage lysosome function in diseases is central to my research. This includes genetic defects occurring in lysosomal storage diseases, as well as acquired metabolic diseases such as obesity and atherosclerosis. Since 2015, I have been working at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry, and since 2018, I have been officially appointed as a lecturer.
Prof. dr. ir. Jack Pronk – Professor in Industrial Microbiology; Head of Department of Biotechnology, TU Delft
Jack Pronk is professor in Industrial Microbiology and Head of the Department of Biotechnology at TU Delft. His research aims to understand and improve microbial performance in industrial processes and integrates quantitative physiology, genomics, synthetic biology and evolutionary engineering. Jack (co-)authored 300 scientific publications and is inventor on 28 patent applications. Several metabolic engineering inventions from Jack and his close colleagues at TU Delft are applied at industrial scale. He loves to teach and considers the 1st-year Biotechnology course in the LST-BSc programme an annual highlight in his academic year. A fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Science (KNAW) and Stevin Prize laureate, Jack is especially proud of his honorary membership of LIFE.
Dr. Kristina Djanashvili – Professor of Biocatalysis, TU Delft
Prof. dr. Sander van Kasteren – Professor of Molecular Immunology, Leiden University
Prof. dr. Sander van Kasteren is professor in the field of chemical immunology. He received his Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2001, before moving to Oxford for his PhD on the chemical modification of proteins for immune diagnostics. In 2012, Sander started his own group, doing research at the interface of chemistry and immunology. Their current interests are in the development of new approaches to study degradative events in the immune system based on bioorthogonal chemistry. He uses his background in organic synthesis and dendritic cell biology to study and manipulate the uptake and routing of antigen in dendritic cells.
Dr. Anne Wentink – Professor of Macromolecular Biology, Leiden University
Prof. Dr. Mario van der Stelt – Professor of Molecular Physiology, Leiden University