https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/staff/g-mertens
What is your role/position in the IDA program?
Internship/thesis supervisor
How long have you been teaching?
In the IDA program, for 2.5 years and overall for 6 years.
What do you like about teaching?
Exchange of ideas and working together with bright and motivated students.
What is the reason you became a researcher?
Curiosity and freedom to shape your research projects. But probably also luck (i.e., opportunities) and inertia.
What is the most fascinating about human beings to you?
The fact that any individual person is not particularly smart or good at many things, but that as a group/society/humankind, some impressive things have been achieved (e.g., logistic systems, nuclear energy, interplanetary travel, laser surgery, etc.).
Are there times where you doubt researching or university?
Sure, it is a big world with many different opportunities and it is sometimes tempting to go explore that!
What makes IDA students unique?
Motivated, smart, many different interests and skills. And I have some special admiration for the international students, who move countries/continents and manage to make a success of their studies here in the Netherlands.
If you could change something in the university setting what would you change?
Probably a bit less experimenting with didactic forms (seems often not very evidence driven to me).
What advice would you give future IDA students?
Just enjoy the program and the learning experiences. Of course, it can be stressful, but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that it is a nice and small-scale program and can actually be a lot of fun!
What is a collaborative project that you liked and worked with an IDA student on?
Together with one of my former students (Lisa Vos), we published a paper based on her traineeship, which was very impressive.
How are you experiencing the teacher-student relationship in the IDA program?
It’s very good I think, due to the small-scale teaching (which allows it to be a bit more personal compared to many other programs).
If you are not teaching or doing research, what else do you like doing in your personal time?
I enjoy doing sports (rugby, gym, swimming, cycling), seeing friends, reading, and guilty pleasure binging on TV shows (currently: Below Deck Med).
Is there anything we missed and you would like to share? This can also be something personal e.g. a motto.
“Perfect is the enemy of good” (even has its own Wikipedia page). In other words, perfect is often an illusion or a unachievable high standard, which can stand in the way of getting things done (which, in many cases, is the more important goal).
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