The department of Translational neuroscience is involved coordinating as well as teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The two pillars of teaching includes neuroscience and pharmacology. The department is additionally involved in teach-the-teacher courses.
Neuroscience
The bachelors program (biomedical sciences & biology) focuses on developing student’s understanding of (human) brain disorders and basic skills to perform research in Neuroscience. The masters neuroscience and cognition prepares students to become a multidisciplinary neuroscientist or cognition researcher. The undergraduate program offers students the opportunity to follow courses, write theses or follow internships within the department. Our PhD Clinical and Experimental Neuroscience program trains students to perform Neuroscience research independently (currently a multi-disciplinary community of >200 PhD students in the field of neuroscience).
Pharmacology
Undergraduate pharmacology teaching in the medical faculty aims to develop student knowledge on the mechanism of action of drugs, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Students learn about basic pharmacology in a clinical context. To achieve this, the department collaborates with hospital pharmacy and department of internal medicine to coordinate the Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy track within the medical curriculum.
Teach-the-teacher program
The department is currently running teach-the-teacher program together with the Utrecht Center for Research and Development of Health Professions Education. The program enables young scientists (PhD students and post-docs) to follow training on university teaching.
Contributions
We organise and actively participate in the Neuroscience and Cognition program where students are raised as multidisciplinary neuro and/or cognition scientists, fully equipped to face the challenges of the interdisciplinary field of neuroscience and cognition. Please see the N&C website for more information: Neuroscience & Cognition | Master’s programme
We also manage the PhD program Clinical & Experimental Neuroscience – Graduate School of Life Sciences – Utrecht University
Elly Hol: N&C master program director, CEN PhD program director, Director of education Division Neuroscience Geert Ramakers: N&C master program coordinator, CEN PhD program coordinator Dennis Schutter (psychology, UU): Neuroscience and Cognition master program, Cognitive Neuroscience track Roger Adan: CEN PhD program ECN track coordinator
Lecturers
I teach basic neurophysiology (electrical activity in neurons and synaptic transmission) in the bachelor programs Biomedical Sciences and Medicine and the master program Neuroscience and Cognition. I am program coordinator of the master Neuroscience and Cognition and the PhD program Clinical and Experimental Neuroscience. Finally, I am chair of the educational committee of the bachelor program Biomedical Sciences and member of the Committee on Higher Education and Training of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.
As associate professor of Medical Education I am committed to developing and providing good education for our students in the bachelor programs Medicine, Clinical Sciences and Biomedical Sciences. I do my best to propagate this as a mentor for individual students, as a lecturer and teacher of pharmacology, as a coordinator of courses and as a member of curriculum development teams in these bachelors. My heart goes out to give our students a good foundation to further develop into future professionals.
Dedicated to teaching at Bachelor and master at the University Utrecht and UMC Utrecht. In addition to organizing courses at multiple levels, I am also a staff member Educational Committee Graduate school of Life Sciences (UU), a tutor for biomedical science students and also involved in the “Teach the Neuroscience Teacher pilot” initiative.
As the coordinator of the pharmacology and pharmacotherapy track within the medical curriculum of the UMC Utrecht, I provide future (bio)medical professionals a solid basis in Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy. Equipping future health care professionals with tools necessary for safe-prescribing practices is my major goal. I am an advocate of an inclusive learning environment where learning is based on the principles of active participation with a learner centered approach, and additionally involved in various functions within the medical and biomedical faculties as coordinator, mentor and lecturer. On a personal note, I am an avid practitioner and student of Ashtanga Yoga and meditation.