On the fifth of july, this year, I obtained my Phd degree in biology. As a consequence I am orienting myself on the labour market. I am looking for a new employer, but off course employers may find me too. Therefore I made this page. From those who are interested, I kindly ask to send me an e-mail, I would very much like to get into contact with you.
(See also my curriculum vitae or description of my Phd-student project.)

References

For an opinion about what I am good at or bad at, please consult my professor, prof. dr. N. Nanninga. We worked closely together the last couple of years, his e-mail address is nanninga@science.uva.nl, his telephone number is +31 20 525 5194.
The first years of my PhD project (and earlier) I worked under supervision of Oof Oud. I often did my educational duties together with him. His e-mail address is ooud@science.uva.nl (note the extra o), his telephone number is +31 20 525 7981.

My capabilities

Multi-disciplinarity   Although I am a biologist at heart, I most like to work on the interface of disciplines, especially on the interface of biology and computer science. This attitude helped me to acquire a certain amount of expertise in various disciplines, such as computer programming and statistics. The disadvantage could be that I am not a specialist in any particular discipline (unless combining disciplines is a specialism).

Communication   In general, I cooperate well with collegues. I am not afraid to talk in small groups, nor am I afraid to present work for large groups; my presentations are generally very well appreciated. That is probably because I enjoy presenting and because I prepare myself well.
In meetings, I know how to express myself, especially when I had enough time to prepare. In such cases I seem capable of influencing a discussion in a positive way.

Education   I find transfering knowledge as joyful as I find it important. I am also interested in how knowledge can be transferred. As a Phd-student my educational duties consisted of training students: from a few students for training sessions of about an hour, to a research trainee during several months. I have always enjoyed this, I think the students did too. At times, I might have been too eager to help my students.

Responsibility   I take my work very seriously. I strive for well thought-through solutions (I rather think twice about a solution).

Working environment   I like to see that the working environment is pleasent, one in which collegues support eachother. I find it important that dedication is appreciated. In general I think that people produce the best results when they feel appreciated.

My past

A common theme during my education and work is the combination of biology and information science. Biology was one of my favourite subjects at school, the computer was my favourite hobby at home. Biology is what I studied, but at the faculty of biology I found places where computer analysis was an important aspect of research. Eventually I started my Phd at the 'Molecular Cytology' group studying 'The 3-D organisation of the interphase nucleus of the Indian Muntjac'. This primitive deer was chosen because it has the largest chromosomes of all known mammals. Unfortunately, I didn't reach the computer analysis stage of the project (3-D image analysis). After one and a half years of working very hard on a protocol to stain individual chromosomes, we decided that the technique would not work. As a result I turned my attention from the largest chromosomes to the smallest, those of the bacterium Escherichia coli. Because this project was already in progress when I started working on it, I could concentrate primarily on the computer analysis. I started with a statistical approach to determine average positions of various gene regions within the cell. Then I tested a number of models for the organisation of DNA in the cell by simulating experiments on the computer and comparing data obtained in silico with our data obtained in vitro. This has led to new insights, and my presentation on this subject was received very well at a recent international conference. Three articles on this subject have been published, and are part of my thesis.

My future

Obviously, I expect my future work to be on the surface between biology and information science. At the moment I have not decided on anything. For instance, I haven't made a choice between working in science or working in industry, I want to explore both possibilities. I am not bound by any particular subject, I worked on DNA in eukaryotes and prokaryotes, but I wouldn't mind if the next subject is different. I see myself less and less as an experimental biologist, but increasingly as a 'computer-biologist'. With that I mean a biologist who uses ideas derived from information science (often the term 'bio-informatics' is associated only with processing of data from (human) genome projects, but I find this definition too narrow). Of course, the fact of the matter is also that I am a biologists who knows how to handle computers and knows how to program them. I do not consider myself an exceptional (experimental) biologist, nor do I consider myself an exceptional information scientist. My strength lies, I think, in the combination.

Contact me by sending an e-mail to:
m.roos@amc.uva.nl (formerly roos@science.uva.nl).