Maike Hansen (33) studied in five countries, won the Descartes-Huygens Prize and now leads her own research group at Radboud University Nijmegen. She wants to understand the molecular processes in cells so well that we can influence them. ‘I think in molecules, but what matters to me is the application.’

Maike Hansen travelled half the world for her school and study career. She was born in Germany, attended primary school in Italy and secondary school in Belgium, studied in England, got her PhD in the Netherlands, did her postdoc in San Francisco and finally settled down in Nijmegen to start a research group. There, she studies how small differences between cells can result in completely different behaviour at the cellular level.