Developmental neuroscientist Eveline Crone, based at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University, has been awarded the Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellowship 2023/24 for her research on the emerging of curiosity. During her fellowship, starting September 2023, she will unravel how changes in curiosity emerge, and which factors facilitate opportunities for curiosity in biological, individuals, social and societal domains.
The Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellowship (DNLF) is set up by the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) and the Lorentz Center to promote cutting edge interdisciplinary research. The Fellowship is awarded to a leading scientist working on research that, in essential ways, combines perspectives from the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Technological Sciences.
About Eveline Crone’s research
Eveline Crone has a specific interest in the developing human brains and its cognitive functions. Her work on brain imaging in young individuals is groundbreaking and has led to numerous scientific discoveries and recognitions. For example, Crone demonstrated that brain regions that are important for learning show development changes during adolenscence. She also recently found out that adolescents who report stable and warm friendships across adolescence show heightened activation in reward centers of the brain when gaining awards for their friends.
Aim of the fellowship research: new theory on emerging curiosity
At the basic psychological level, curiosity has been of interest to psychologist for centuries, but little progress has been made in developing a unified theory of curiosity. Crone wants to develop and propose a new theory on emerging curiosity which argues that changes in the human brain during adolescence may reflect a transition period for curiosity. The development of curiosity is expected to be of importance for taking social responsibilities and to aid rapid adaption to different contexts. During her research, Crone will combine traditional cognitive science approaches with novel methods from industrial design engineering and cognitive and affective neuroscience literature. Crone: "Curiosity is one of the most important cornerstones of human cognition and at the same time one of the most poorly understood cognitive constructs."
About Eveline Crone
Eveline Crone (Schiedam, 1975) studied developmental psychology at the University of Amsterdam and obtained her PhD cum laude in 2003. After she spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis, Crone came to Leiden University. In 2009 she was appointed professor in Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology at this university. In addition, Crone started as professor of Developmental Neuroscience in Society at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences in 2020.
Crone has been awarded several prestigious research grants, including a VENI, VIDI and VICI grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and two grants by the European Research Council (ERC), namely a Starting Grant in 2010 and a Consolidator Grant in 2016. In September 2017, Eveline received the Spinoza award for her research on the adolescent brain. She is known to the general public for her book 'Het puberende brein’ (The adolescent brain).
About the Fellowship
A Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellowship is by nomination only. The Distinguished NIAS-Lorentz Fellow receives a 5-month residential fellowship at NIAS, a workshop at the Lorentz Center and a public lecture at SPUI25. Previous fellows include psychiatrist Iris Sommer, cultural biologist Franjo Weissing and psychologist Iris van Rooij.
About NIAS
The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study is an intellectual haven for international researchers, writers, journalists, and artists to pursue their project, to work in an interdisciplinary environment and to share their knowledge with society. NIAS is the oldest Institute for Advanced Study in Europe whose founding mission is to foster curiosity-driven research. It is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and is located in Amsterdam.
About the Lorentz Center
The Lorentz Center is a workshop center that hosts international scientific meetings. The meetings are normally 5-days long for up to 55 participants and are characterized by high scientific quality and an open and interactive atmosphere. It is located at Leiden University.
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Marjolein Kooistra, communications ESSB, kooistra@essb.eur.nl
