My research focus is attachment and emotion regulation in parents and their children, with special emphasis on neurobiological processes in parenting and development. My academic interests include the interplay between nature and nurture, exploring and testing the ‘differential susceptibility’ model, hormonal correlates of parenting, and interventions. I have a special interest in fathers around the birth of their first baby: what neural, hormonal, and behavioral changes accompany the first 1,000 days of fatherhood?

See for an onterview on the Father Trials study in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine:

https://horizon-magazine.eu/article/new-fathers-may-undergo-hormonal-neural-and-behavioural-changes_en.html

Academic honours and awards

• Honorary Doctorate, University of Lund, Sweden, June 2, 2017
• Highly Cited Researcher in Psychology/Psychiatry 2016, 2017 (Thomson Reuters)
• Advanced Grant from the European Research Council 2015.
• Elected member of the KNAW ( Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) since 2012.
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science since 2012
• NWO – VICI laureate 2009/2010. Grant for outstanding senior researchers who have shown that they have the ability successfully to develop their own innovative lines of research and to act as coaches for young researchers
• Bowlby-Ainsworth Award 2005 ( New York Attachment Consortium & The Center for Mental Health Promotion). The Bowlby-Ainsworth Award recognizes founders and singular contributors to the Bowlby-Ainsworth tradition of attachment theory and research. April 2005.
• NWO – VIDI laureate 2004. Grant for outstanding young researchers who are among the top 10-20% of their peer group

No ancillary activities

Ancillary activities are updated daily