2019 was the largest fire year since at least 1997 within the Arctic Circle, largely driven by Siberian fires. The arctic-boreal region stores about two atmospheres worth of soil carbon with 90 % currently locked in permafrost soils, or perennially frozen ground. Fire releases parts of this carbon stock, which may induce a vigorous climate warming feedback. FireIce will investigate feedbacks between climate warming and arctic-boreal fires by studying direct and longer-term carbon emissions from fires. FireIce will acquire highly needed observations of carbon emissions from Siberian forest and tundra fires. On top of the direct fire emissions, fires accelerate permafrost degradation, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions for several decades. Their sum may be substantially larger than the direct emissions, yet is largely unknown. In addition, FireIce will investigate the relative contribution of CH4 from smoldering fires to fire emissions. CH4 emissions represent a small, yet not well known, fraction of carbon emissions from fires, but CH4 is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. FireIce will investigate feedbacks between climate warming and arctic-boreal fires by studying controls on fire size and ignition. Fire growth can be limited because of fuel or fire weather limitations. The fire weather control is sensitive to warming, which may lead to larger future fires. Lightning ignition is the main source of burned area in arctic-boreal regions, and more lightning is expected in the future. By combining contemporary controls on fire size and ignition, and future predictions of climate and lightning, FireIce will assess the vulnerability of arctic-boreal permafrost and soil carbon to increases in fire. FireIce’s results will be relevant to evidence-based policy. FireIce’s innovations are conceptual, i.e. unstudied aspects of an emerging warming feedback loop, methodological, e.g. inclusion of novel spaceborne data, and geographical, i.e. a focus on Siberia.

My postdoctoral project for the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie fellowship deals with recessions and health. The aim of the proposal is to provide a comprehensive analysis of how individual health is affected (both in the short and in the long-run) when recessions cause uncertainty on the labour-market. To achieve this aim, I will exploit two major recessions – the 2008 Great Recession and the 1990s Swedish recession – as well as particularly rich administrative data to answer two well-posed and policy-relevant questions: (1) Do individuals who experience major labour-market uncertainty during by recessions suffer from health disorders in the short-run? (2) Do recessions at career entry negatively affect health over the life-course – and in particular in the long-run? To adress these questions, the proposal will tackle two related and complementary specific objectives: (1) Analyse the short-term consequences of the drastic cuts in art subsidies in the Netherlands in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession – which triggered major labour market uncertainty in the art sector – on health outcomes for individuals in the art sector. (2) Investigate the long-run health effects of graduating in the 1990s Swedish Great recession using an innovative life-course perspective. Both the framework and the methodology used in these two projects are challenging and new. First, I exploit natural experiments as exogenous shocks on labour-market conditions, which allows deriving causal estimates. Second, I use particularly rich linked administrative data over long periods of time, which enables me to take a life-course perspective. I strongly believe that this unprecedented combination of the original concepts, the methodology, that is completely new to the field, and my particularly large and rich datasets will provide a completely new avenue to understand how individual health responding to labour-market uncertainty caused by recessions is affected, both in the short and long-run.

Our research team at the Amsterdam Emotion regulation Lab (emotionregulationlab.com) has recently established that avoidance movements can lower anger and aggression among individuals with chronic anger management problems. Building on and extending these findings, we propose to develop, test, and market an interactive application that runs on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. This Anger Reduction Tool (ART) will consist of a ‘serious game’ that trains people to make avoidance movements to angry faces. The ART will be commercialized through a freemium model, such that it will be made freely available, while users can purchase additional functionalities using bio- and neuro-feedback modules. The ART will be marketed to mental health professionals with clients who are not willing or able to respond to traditional cognitive interventions, such as high school children or lower-educated violent offenders. By harnessing the possibilities of smart technology, the ART allows people to become co-managers of their (mental) health and well-being.

Brain function requires precise regulation of the neuronal proteome which involves localizing thousands of mRNAs to neurites, where specific subsets are translated at the required subcellular locations. Although local translation is well-established, the mechanisms that ensure the capture and translation of specific mRNAs at the correct subcellular location remain elusive. A better understanding of this process is urgent since dysregulation of mRNA localization and translation is emerging as a key pathological event in neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In RNA.ORG, I aim to define, at a molecular level, how the coordination between mRNA transport, capture and local translation occurs to support neuronal function. Recent work from my lab and others has shown that multiple organelles interact with mRNA and translational machinery. This raises the exciting possibility that organelle interactions coordinate mRNA distribution, local capture and selective translation. I have developed tools to visualize and manipulate organelle position and contacts at nanoscale resolution. Here, I will leverage these tools and directly control mRNA positioning to elucidate the importance of mRNA capture in neuronal function and intervene in its dysregulation in ALS. In combination with live-cell and super-resolution imaging, RNA-sequencing and proteomics, this project will address the following key objectives: 1) Resolve the subcellular distribution and dynamics of neuronal organelle-mRNA contacts 2) Unravel the functions of organelle-mediated mRNA capture at specific subcellular locations 3) Determine the role of dysregulated mRNA capture in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis RNA.ORG will elucidate novel mechanisms on the subcellular capture and translation of specific mRNAs in neurons and will provide new insights into the role of local mRNA positioning in neuronal development, physiology and pathology.

In the last forty years, researchers in the Field of Migration and Ethnic Studies looked at the integration of migrants and their descendants. Concepts, methodological tools and theoretical frameworks have been developed to measure and predict integration outcomes both across different ethnic groups and in comparison with people of native descent. But are we also looking into the actual integration of the receiving group of native ‘white’ descent in city contexts where they have become a numerical minority themselves? In cities like Amsterdam, now only one in three youngsters under age fifteen is of native descent. This situation, referred to as a majority-minority context, is a new phenomenon in Western Europe and it presents itself as one of the most important societal and psychological transformations of our time. I argue that the field of migration and ethnic studies is stagnating because of the one-sided focus on migrants and their children. This is even more urgent given the increased ant-immigrant vote. These pressing scientific and societal reasons pushed me to develop the project BAM (Becoming A Minority). The project will be executed in three harbor cities, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Malmö, and three service sector cities, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Vienna. BAM consists of 5 subprojects: (1) A meta-analysis of secondary data on people of native ‘white’ descent in the six research sites; (2) A newly developed survey for the target group; (3) An analysis of critical circumstances of encounter that trigger either positive or rather negative responses to increased ethnic diversity (4) Experimental diversity labs to test under which circumstances people will change their attitudes or their actions towards increased ethnic diversity; (5) The formulation of a new theory of integration that includes the changed position of the group of native ‘white’ descent as an important actor.