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As Programme Director of Applied Mathematics at the University of Twente, my role is to set a path from basic Math to the UT applications in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Chip Technology, Energy and Health, and Sustainability. My daily routine is supporting and listening to my colleagues and our students. I work with a great team to organize good education together. These times provide enough challenges; it is not always straightforward, but I'll do my best. And at the end of the day, I still enjoy solid mathematical insight and good (computational) results. And so, I am also an associate professor in the chair MIA (Mathematics of Imaging and Artificial Intelligence) headed by C. Brune within the DAMUT cluster MAGNUS. I studied Physics and Mathematics in Utrecht and continued for a PhD in Mathematics with Yuri Kuznetsov and Ferdinand Verhulst as my advisors. After obtaining my PhD in December 2006, I moved to the University of Twente to work with Stephan van Gils on more applied problems in Health, and mathematical neuroscience. My research in Numerical Bifurcation Theory deals with theoretical descriptions and numerical tools for bifurcations in ODEs and maps. With these tools, we can classify the dynamics near a bifurcation. This information allows us to understand specific model behaviour and initialization of nontrivial bifurcation curves. I am an active developer of the Matlab toolbox MATCONT and have taught several related tutorials. My research on Neurostimulation centres around the idea that a stimulus steers neuronal dynamics. For instance, we can use Deep Brain Stimulation to quench the undesirable oscillatory dynamics related to Parkinson's disease. Understanding the effect of such stimulation may lead to improved neuromodulation strategies. Neuromodulation and psychophysics also offer a unique window into pathology and cognition. The SPES protocol used in the workup for epilepsy surgery may reveal epileptogenic networks. I strive to develop computational models of neuronal dynamics that explain data and have clinical relevance. |
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News and Events:
-- 11-15 January 2027: Workshop on MatCont at Zaragoza-- 29 June 2026: Lucas Jansen Klomp successfully defended his PhD thesis
-- Spring 2026: Research visits to Nottingham, Brno, Conference CSNDD, Marrakech
-- 2 July 2025: Organized the Midterm review for our BSc and MSc programmes
-- 23-24 June 25: We hosted the yearly NDNS+ Workshop, find an impression here.
-- 1 June 2025: Formal start as Programme Director for Applied Mathematics
-- 15-19 January/April 2025: Research visit to Scarabel(Leeds) with Davide Liessi(Udine) finishing the integrationn spectral methods for DDEs into MatCont. Release of MatCont7p6 with Youtube Tutorial
-- 9 September 2024: Programme Director for Applied Mathematics (ad interim)
-- 24-25 June 24: Organized early NDNS+ Workshop, find the details here.
-- October 2023: Research visits to Brno and Nottingham
-- 15 July 2023: Tutorial on Numerical Bifurcation Analysis at CNS 23 in Leipzig with R. Gast and B. Pietras.
-- 28-30 June 23: Research visit to Scarabel(Leeds) to integrate spectral methods for DDEs into MatCont.
-- 26-27 June 23: We hosted the yearly NDNS+ Workshop, find an impression here here.
-- Spring 2023 Avitabile and I will be teaching Mathematical Neuroscience, for now see here.
-- 1 Oct 22: Hannah van Susteren started as a PhD student to continue work on the tripartite synapse model in our Z2-project.
-- 14 July 22: Manu Kalia successfully defended his PhD thesis, event info .
-- 20-21-Jun 22: Organised NDNS+ workshop at UT, see 2022-edition.
-- 6-7 Apr 22: Attending "Perturbations in Epilepsy" in Birmingham, UK, presenting a poster "Neural Network Reconstruction from SPES-Response Data" winning the Neuronostics-sponsored poster award.
-- 2 Apr 2022: Now hosting MatCont here.
-- April 2022: Proud to start serving as DSWeb Software Section Editor for the SIAM Dynamical Systems activity group for two years.
-- 9 Dec 2021: Our prolongation proposal Z2 with Michel van Putten (UT) and Christine Rose (HHU) for RU 2795 was granted.
-- 8-19 Nov 21: Hosting Veronika Eclerova (Brno) and two PhDs to explore Very High Frequency Oscillations.
-- 1 Nov 21: Lucas Jansen Klomp started as PhD student on the project SCI-MAP. Co-supervision with Janine Post (DBE, UT).
-- 23 Sep 21: With Leijten and Huiskamp presented our joint work at a ZonMw Webinar related to the pearl award.
-- 21-22 Jun 21: Organised NDNS+ workshop via Zoom, see 2021-edition
-- 20 May 2021: Our project "From Computational Models of Epilepsy to Clinical Protocols" was awarded with a ZonMw Parel, see the ZonMw Announcement and the UT press release. We had a promo video (at 39:00 onwards).
-- Spring 2021; With Daniele Avitabile (VU) I will be teaching a Mastermath course Mathematical Neuroscience.
-- July 2020 Promoted to Associate Professor.
-- March 9-13 2020: Just before Corona-lockdown, Research Visit to Thomas Knoesche, Leipzig.
-- 4-9-2019 We organize a minisymposium "From Epilepsy Surgery to Mathematical Models and Back" on the occasion of the PhD defence of Jurgen Hebbink. Speakers: Wim van Drongelen (Chicago), Thomas Knoesche (Leipzig), Arjan Hillebrand (Amsterdam UMC-VU).
-- 15-19 July 2019: We have a nice introductory workshop on bifurcations of ODEs, maps and DDEs with MatCont, see program.
-- 20-5-19: We won the software contest of SIAM DSWeb for our tool MatContM in the category faculty. Photo at the DS19meeting at Snowbird.
-- March 2019: Cambridge University Press published our book with Yu.A. Kuznetsov on "Numerical Bifurcation Analysis of Maps: From Theory to Software". It contains an overview of codim 1 and 2 bifurcation and (new) theoretical results, description of software with tutorials, and several examples. More info on publisher site . We have written a short BLOG with some thoughts about the book.
-- 16-1-19: Co-Promotor at UGent for Niels Neirynck. He succesfully defended his PhD thesis "Advances in Numerical Bifurcation Software: MatCont". Congratulations!
-- February-July 2018; Supervising Erasmus-exchange Filipa Sampaio on replication of papers on epilepsy surgery.
-- 18-9-17: I was awarded the education prize by the management team of the programme Biomedical Engineering Technology for my teaching, see the Picture.
-- 10-7-17: Graduation of Manu Kalia co-supervised with Yuri Kuznetsov, see his Thesis on homoclinic saddle to saddle-focus transitions in 4D systems.
-- 15-6-16: Surprise thanks for my teaching from Abacus (Student Association of Math), see the flowers .
-- February-June 2016: Guest researcher Zohre Eskandari from Isfahan, Iran, working on numerical symmetric bifurcations, resulting in a paper in 2018.
-- 4 December 2015: Huan Yang proudly defended his PhD Thesis. (Exactly nine years after my own, to the minute). Then moved for a postdoc to LACDR, Leiden, NL.
-- April 2015: Following very positive comments of students, I was interviewed regarding my teaching. Read it here ( PDF .
-- October 2014: Jurgen Hebbink started as PhD on the ZonMW-project "From neural mass models to clinical protocols" with UMC Utrecht, see Past Projects.
-- June 23-25, 2014: Bifurcation Analysis Workshop, Hasselt, June 23-25, 2014, see the Flyer .
-- November 2013: Theme session on Fechner Day 2013, Freiburg, see Proceedings
-- Academic year 2009-2010, there will be a MRI masterclass on Numerical Bifurcation Analysis of Dynamical Systems with several related activities. Notes on codim 2 bifurcations of maps.
-- Enjoyed the New Directions Short Course Mathematical Neuroscience at the IMA. In fact all sources/videos are here and still relevant.
-- On 11-1-2008 we organize a one-day minisymposium Multiscale Modeling and Singular Perturbations as part of a winterschool.
