Profile

I was born in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I met my partner in high school 🏫, and we’ve been together for over 25 years since. We have two children: Tristan is 13, and Nora is 10 ⚽. I spent two years in the US 🇺🇸, and have been in the UK 🇬🇧 for the last 15 years. Edinburgh is home. I used to play volleyball 🏐 in school, but switched to karate 🥋 in university; now I teach the karate classes.

Normal computers have bits, that can be 0 or 1. Quantum computers have quantum bits, that behave much more weirdly. They can take on more values than just 0 and 1. And when you have two of them, they can sync up 💃🕺. Nobody really knows why, but it’s very useful: you can use these tricks to answer some questions much more quickly than any normal computer can. 🏃👟 With a quantum computer, you can solve some problems in an hour that a normal computer couldn’t solve in a billion years! ⏰

In the office, my time is divided roughly over 4 things:

• I teach courses, preparing lectures, talking to students, mark coursework and exams. 🧑‍🏫
• I do research and read literature. Sometimes this involves calculating things myself, but more often it means talking to people and trying out ideas. 💡
• I supervise others’ research. This means talking to them about what they’ve done, where they’re stuck, and maybe get ideas for how to get unstuck, how to work around the problem, or whether the problem is even worth it. 🤗
• I help to keep the university working smoothly. I organise courses, design the curriculum, interview new students, help in advertising and open days, make sure all the paperwork and finances are in order. 👨‍💼

For all of this I have lots of help! I love working together with people.