First person to defend a PhD thesis that was based on self-research a special day for personal science

17 February 2022

Sara Riggare has a scoop to be the first person to defend a PhD thesis that was based on self-research. By means of self-tracking she was able to get a grip on the medication she requires to keep the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease at bay. She wrote an excellent thesis on this personal science quest (link below), supervised by Maria Hägglund, Martijn de Groot, and Bas Bloem. Sara will be defending her work on Friday 25^th March at 10:30 am CET at the aula of the Radboud University, Nijmegen. Members of the defending committee are: Jan Kremer, Effy Vayena, Tamar Sharon, Marina Noordegraaf, Sabine Oertelt and Teus van Laar.

To celebrate this unique PhD ceremony there will be a Personal Science Symposium in the afternoon between 3 - 5 pm CET.  During this online symposium several great speakers will share their view on this emerging field of personal knowledge creation, including Bas Bloem, Sara Riggare, Jakob Eg Larsen, Thomas Blomseth Christiansen and Gary Wolf. The program will be an interesting and inspiring mix of keynotes, show and tell, Q&A, and a special unveiling…

It promises to be a one-off day with two great events, so mark your calendar! If you plan to attend the online symposium, please sign up via this link (program and livestream link will follow per e-mail):

https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/formulieren/online-personal-science-symposium

 

Here’s a link to Sara Riggare’s thesis: https://www.riggare.se/2022/01/21/my-phd-thesis-is-now-available/

Here’s a link to the university calendar : https://www.ru.nl/english/news-agenda/agenda/phd-defences/@1331627/personal-science-parkinson-disease-patient-led/

Here’s a link to the livestream of the PhD defense (March 25^th 10:30 am): https://www.ru.nl/over-ons/diensten-faciliteiten/vm/aula/livestream/livestream-academiezaal/%C2%A0/