Organisation - General
Overview
The following diagram shows an overview of the Helmholtz School.
Scientific Director
The scientific director of the School is responsible for the execution of the educational program. He or she prepares the agenda of the board meetings and carries out the decisions. Two committees, the educational and the PhD council, assist the director in this task.
Presently, Prof.dr. F.A.J. Verstraten (UU) is director of the School.
Board
The board of the School contains one representative of each group.
The major task of the board is to provide the conditions that guarantee that the goals of the school can be achieved. First, with respect to PhD training, the board decides on the educational programme of the school and the criteria for awarding the PhD certificate to students of the school. Second, the board is responsible for the overall research programme, the formal collaborations, and the selection of (affiliated) members.
Presently the board is constituted as follows:
Prof.dr. J.J. Bolhuis Behavioural Biology Utrecht University Prof.dr. C.J. Erkelens Perceputal Motor Integration Utrecht University Dr.ir. J.M. Festen Otorhinolaryngology Free University Amsterdam Prof.dr. M.A. Frens Neuroscience Erasmus University Rotterdam Prof.dr. A.M.L. Kappers Human Perception Utrecht University Prof.dr. C. Kemner Biological Developmental Psychology chair a.i. Utrecht University Prof.dr. A. Postma Experimental Psychology Utrecht University Prof.dr. J.B.J. Smeets Human Movement Sciences Free University Amsterdam Dr. J. van der Steen Physiology Erasmus University Rotterdam Prof.dr. F.A.J. Verstraten Experimental Psychology Utrecht University Prof.dr. R.J.A. van Wezel Psychofarmacology Utrecht University
Scientific advisory board
The Helmholtz School is adviced by a scientific advisory board consisting of:
Prof.dr. D. Ballard University of Rochester, USA Prof.dr. A. Berthoz College de France, Paris, France Prof.dr. H. Bülthof Max Planck Institut für Kybernetik, Germany Prof.dr. J.J. Eggermont University of Calgary, Canada Prof.dr. A.D. Milner University of St. Andrews, UK Prof.dr. Ch.M.M. de Weert University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Organisation - Committees
Educational committee
The educational committee contains one representative of each research group. The task of the committee is to compose the curriculum and to guard its quality. The committee also compares the individual training programs of the PhD's with the rules laid down in the training program and the regulations of the school.
PhD council
The PhD council is a part of the Helmholtz Institute organization and consists of PhD students of the institute. The council acts as an intermediate between the management of the institute and the PhD students. The council provides the management extra input or an extra opinion on matters concerning the PhD students. For the PhD students the council serves as a place to go to with questions, remarks or suggestions related to the Helmholtz Institute.
Points of interest
- The Helmholtz curriculum
- How to improve the communication to and among the PhD students
- What is the value of the multidisciplinary character of the institute
- ‘AiO-dagen’
- What is the value of previous Helmholtz PhD students on the market
Contact us
- Because we need your opinion to represent the Helmholtz PhD students to the board
- If you want to have something discussed in the PhD council
You can reach us by email: HelmholtzPhD@phys.uu.nl
Organisation - Members
Groups
The Helmholtz research school is a collaboration of two research institutes, the Helmholtz Institute at Utrecht and the Neuroscience Institute at Rotterdam.
The members of the Helmholtz Institute that participate in the School are
- Behavioural Biology, Dept. Biology, headed by prof.dr. J.J. Bolhuis
- Experimental Psychology, Fac. Social Sciences, headed by prof.dr. F.A.J. Verstraten
- Functional Neurobiology, Dept. Biology, headed by prof.dr. A.V. van den Berg
- Human Perception, Dept. Physics and Astronomy, headed by prof.dr. A.M.L. Kappers
- Perception Motor Integration Dept. Physics and Astronomy, headed by prof.dr. C.J. Erkelens
The members of the Neuroscience Institute that participate in the School are
- Neuroscience, Fac. of Medicine, headed by prof.dr. M.A. Frens
The associated members are
- Control of Movement, Fac. of Human Movement Sciences, Free University Amsterdam
- Experimental Audiology, Fac. of Medicine, University of Amsterdam
- Otorhinolaryngology, Fac. of Medicine, Free University Amsterdam
Organisation - Collaborations
National collaborations
In 1997 the Helmholtz Research School decided to focus its research and education on the perception and motor behaviour of human beings and animals. The study of artificial autonomous systems was organised in another research school. The major motive of this choice was the importance of thematic coherence as a necessary condition for our success.
For the benefit of our PhD students we have made arrangements with a few other research schools that cover adjacent fields of research, such as NICI (Nijmegen), Human Movement Science (VU), BCN (Groningen), the Schouten Institute (Eindhoven), ASCI (Delft) and ImagO (Utrecht). PhD students of these schools are welcome to follow our courses, summer schools and seminars. Likewise our PhD students can make use of elements of their training programs.
We established new collaborations that were meant to strengthen our multi-disciplinary approach (from neurobiology to psychology) with the conservation of thematic coherence. At the national level the institute now participates in the National Research Combination "Cognitive Science" which applied for the "topschool" status in the national "Bonus Incentive Scheme for Research Schools" in 1997. NRC Cognitive Science includes the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the following research schools: the Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information (NICI), the Institute for Fundamental and Clinical Human Movement Sciences (IFKB), the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT) and the Helmholtz Institute.
International collaborations
Our next formal international collaboration will be with "das Graduiertencolleg: Kognition, Gehirn und Neurale Netze (KOGNET)" of the Ruhr Universität Bochum. The common interest here is the development of a Dutch - German training and exchange program for our PhD students.