short bio marte

Hello
My name is Marte, I am 21 years old and I am from the Netherlands. Currently I am in the Cognitive Science track. I am born and raised in Alphen a/d Rijn where I specialized in ‘beta’ subjects during my High School education. Although I really liked biology and chemistry I started with a Bachelor in Dutch language and culture, because I was really into Dutch literature as well. During my bachelors I moved to Amsterdam, which was one of the best decisions I made in my life. After taking courses in (Dutch) linguistics I figured out that I was more into linguistics than into literature. I did a minor in Practical Philosophy and took electives in (Psycho)Linguistics. After that I wrote my Bachelor thesis on verb agreement with disjunctively conjoined subjects in Dutch. During this period I rediscovered my interest in Biology and Chemistry (especially in the brain) as well, so I decided to apply for the Brain and Cognitive science master.
In this block I will follow the courses Brain, Development Plasticity and Repair and Hot Topics in Linguistics and Cognition.
My ultimate goal is to combine the study of the biology of the brain with (psycho)linguistics, because I think the gap between the study of language and the study of the brain is too big. In order to do this I am very interested in studying children with SLI and aphasia patients.

Best,
Marte

Sicco's Bio

What drives the choices of a young man cannot be stated in one blog. Furthermore it is hard to tell whether one blog can state the truth, but I might as well give it a try.

Born in a sleepy suburb invaginated by highways it seemed to me that I might as well move to the city. At first I was determined to study Philosophy, and the big question I wanted to answer was: what can we know? During a school project (on primate ethology) a friend of mine handed me a brochure about the Bachelor Psychobiology, she thought I might like it. Psychobiology was described as the science of the mind and behaviour and for some reason I immediately felt like I understood what that meant.

Of course! My initial question could be answered much easier if I would know how the think machine upstairs actually works!

Now, years later, I admire the high (naïve) expectancies I had. One does not grasp the biological basis of thought in a couple of years (not in centuries for that matter), but that doesn't make studying it less exciting. I had great fun during my Bachelor's and within three years it was all over again and (as is very usual in the Dutch educational system) once again I had to choose what I wanted to do next.

This proved to be much more of a challenge than I thought. Conveniently I put aside this difficult choice and decided to run for the student council of the university and the faculty and became a member of the council. Besides this I also chaired a committee (some of my classmates will remember) that organised a conference on Science and Religion. All of this put a great claim on my energy reserves (though I do have plenty) but I loved it.

Of course a year is through before you know it and before too long I again was confronted with the same choice I had to make a year before. The Master Brain and Cognitive Sciences attracted me in a way very similar to the Bachelor Psychobiology. A fresh and inspiring idea (and ideal) of integrating methods and theories in order to find new answers, and more importantly: new questions. Neuroscience was my track of choice, for obvious reasons.

Neuroscience Rules!