I work at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO (location Soesterberg) and for one day a week at Radboud University where I hold the chair ‘Mental State Monitoring’. I am intrigued by the question of how we can extract information about cognitive and emotional state from physiological signals and implicit behavior outside the lab, and how we can sensibly and responsibly harness this information in applications that benefit people’s well-being and performance. We know from neurocognitive, psychophysiological and psychological research that different types of measured signals (e.g., EEG, skin conductance, eye movements and facial expression) are associated with different types of underlying cognitive and emotional processes. In addition, these different types of signals can inform us about the individual’s current task or context which may be used to better interpret the various signals. Therefore, we usually follow a multi-modal approach. Again with the application in mind, this multi-modal approach includes simultaneous use of wearables and high-end equipment, sometimes resulting in surprisingly good performance of relatively simply measurable signals.

Former and current positions

• 2023-present Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Professor Mental State Monitoring
• 2007-present TNO Human Factors, Soesterberg, The Netherlands. Senior Scientist at the Department Human Performance
• 2005 – 2007 Rochester University, USA. Post-doc at the Center for Visual Science, lab of David Knill. Research on the use of memory and vision in pointing.
• 2002-2005 Max Planck Institute, Tübingen, Germany. Post-doc at Biological Cybernetics, lab of Heinrich Bülthoff. Research on Perception for Recognition and Action (EU-project).
• 1998-2002 Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. PhD student at the Department of Physiology, lab of Eli Brenner and Jeroen Smeets. Research on the use of visual information in intercepting moving objects.