PE&RC in the Spotlight

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Every month we put a PE&RC member in the spotlight. Amber Heijboer (PE&RC PhD program Coordinator & Science Officer and PhD coordinator at UvA ) is the first!

What are you passionate about in your research/job?
What I love most in my job are the many interactions that I have with other people. During the day I am talking to many colleagues, PhD candidates, staff members and other people from within and outside the university. The diversity of people and their different opinions and viewpoints are very energizing and make my job very interesting.

What do you currently do to de-stress?
 I try to go outside for a short walk every day together with my one year old son. He just started walking and it is great to discover the world through his eyes. He is enthusiastic about every bird, tree and car he sees. This really helps to put things in perspective and to enjoy the little things in life!

What are you binging on Netflix?
I recently binged the series Unorthodox on Netflix. It is a short serie (this I didn’t know on beforehand), so before I realised I already finished all the episodes, while having the feeling that I was still in the middle of the series! Very annoying.

If you could be any plant what would you be, and why?
It think this will be the Liquidambar styraciflua, in Dutch called the Amber-tree (it is all in the name..). We have one in our garden and I really love the autumn colours, and I would love to be tall for once.

What have you been cooking lately?
We recently treated ourselves by buying a kamado (a traditional Japanese charcoal-fueled cook stove), so currently we are really into the winter BBQ.. Preparing a dish on a kamado takes time, especially with the current cold temperatures, so it is a perfect lockdown activity. This week we made a South African Stew in our snowy garden!