Amir, Leonie, and Michèle obtained their PhD
Recently, our three team members Amir M. Abdol, Leonie van Grootel, and Michèle Nuijten successfully defended their dissertations and obtained a PhD.
On May 8th, 2018, Amir defended his thesis "Reverse Engineering Spatiotemporal Gene Regulatory Networks of the Nematostella vectensis". In his thesis, he analyzed different type of gene expressions datasets using machine learning algorithms as well as studying and developing new models of gene regulatory network by combining stochastic and deterministic processes.
On May 25th, Leonie defended her thesis “Where No Reviewer Has Gone Before: Exploring the Potential of Mixed Studies Reviewing”. In her thesis, she aimed to further develop ways to include both quantitative and qualitative evidence in a mixed studies review. She recommends that the assumed distinction between quantitative and qualitative evidence in reviewing should be abandoned and that the type of model that is analyzed should be input for the chosen review method instead of the type of data.
On May 30th, Michèle defended her thesis “Research on Research: A Meta-Scientific Study of Problems and Solutions in Psychological Science”. Her thesis consisted of two related research lines. In the first part, she investigated statistical reporting inconsistencies: p-values that don’t match their accompanying test statistic and degrees of freedom. In the second part, she focused on publication bias and related problems, and how these can lead to overestimated effects. Her suggested solution for the observed problems is to invest more in meta-science.