Annemiek ter Heijne appointed chair of Environmental Technology

Ter Heijne herself actually studied Environmental Sciences in Wageningen. She has since been using her interest in science subjects, especially mathematics, to contribute to a better environment. The Department of Environmental Technology turned out to be the perfect place to work on solutions - technologies - to recover valuable components from waste streams. She really enjoyed the combination of biological, chemical and physical processes and working with reactors in the laboratory. For this reason, she conducted her PhD research at the Department of Environmental Technology in collaboration with Wetsus (the European Centre of Excellence For Sustainable Water Technology). In this, Ter Heijne focused on the microbial fuel cell used to recover electricity from wastewater.

Personal development and balance

Over the past 12 years, she has steered her enthusiasm for environmental technology and sustainable energy into teaching and research via her tenure track. As chair, she now focuses on the management of the chair group in addition to teaching and research. In doing so, she would like to see more focus on personal development in the curriculum. A healthy work-life balance and flexibility in work is also a key focus. Ter Heijne herself has been working for 0.8 FTE since halfway through her PhD. She is also filling her new position in these hours. This ensures that she has time for family, sports, volunteering and hobbies.

Important role of artificial intelligence

Another important topic for her is how we deal with artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and research in the future. This is where vision development is urgently needed, within the chair group, but also within the university. Ter Heijne sees great potential for AI in teaching and research. For instance in structuring ideas and as a writing aid. However, short and long-term clarity and vision are needed on how to deploy AI and how not to. Greater awareness of the fact that bias may be present in AI-generated information, the lack of recent information and the fact that sources are not (yet) generated correctly are points for development, acknowledges Ter Heijne.

New directions and collaboration

In the field of research, the Department of Environmental Technology is developing new directions for recovering valuable components from waste streams. For the chair group, increasing the impact of their innovations is key. To this end, Ter Heijne wants to further develop and expand her connections with industrial partners. She is convinced that collaborations are at the heart of progress and that people achieve much more in teams than on their own. She therefore looks forward to using her facilitative leadership to put environmental technology even further on the map.