Professor Jansma’s core research is on language processing. She earned her PhD in 1997 at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, where she investigated language production. Since 1998, Professor Jansma has been affiliated with Maastricht University (UM). In 2002, she received an NWO Aspasia grant and served as a co-investigator in two German DFG Schwerpunkt programs on language production. In 2009, she and her team received funding for a European Training Network “Neurophysics”, and an NWO pilot grant “Methods in Neuroimaging”. She has been Dean of the Faculty Psychology and Neuroscience from 2009 to 2016, and dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences, from 2016-18, with the mission to transfer it into the faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE). In these years, she monitored the coming of high field imaging, the BrainsUnlimited project, and co-initiated the interdisciplinary center of integrative neuroscience (CIN) and the Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (MaCSBio). She is looking forward to chairing the Supervisory Board: “Donders is a beaming hotspot in the Dutch, European and global landscape. I very much look forward to being part of its evolution.”
The appointment of Professor Jansma comes at an important moment for the Donders Institute, which was recently formalised after Edward de Haan joined the Donders Institute as its new Scientific Director earlier in 2023. With the addition of Centre for Language Studies as well as the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics as full partners, the network now includes six partners together with the Donders Centre for Cognition, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Centre for Neuroscience, and Donders Community for Medical Neuroscience. These partners collaborate through the Strategy Board and Management Platform, with the Theme leaders focusing on the Institute's research strategy.
The Executive Board of the Donders Institute looks forward to collaborating to drive forward its mission to advance the understanding of the brain, cognition, and behaviour, while ensuring a vibrant future for this research community.