Sara Lynn Blanken one of the new Faces of Science Researcher brings her work into focus for large audience

What does your life look like when you are a beginning scientist? For the tenth time, the KNAW has selected twelve talented PhD candidates to report on their daily work and life. Among them is Sara Lynn Blanken, researcher at the Radboudumc. 

On Facesofscience.nl, dozens of PhD candidates blog about their research, science in general and their lives as scientists. The blogs are interesting for anyone who wants to know how science works in practice. They also give a realistic picture to students who have to decide whether they want to continue in science, and to students from 5 and 6 VWO who are facing a choice of study.

Sara Lynn Blanken of the Department of Medical Microbiology does research on malaria. In the Netherlands we find mosquito bites mostly annoying, but elsewhere they can also be very dangerous. Tropical mosquito species can transmit malaria, a deadly infectious disease, from person to person. Blanken is researching what affects this transmission, with the goal of preventing the spread of malaria as much as possible. 

As Face of Science, she wants to introduce schoolchildren to science, especially in districts where a choice of science is less obvious. In particular, she hopes to get girls excited about a career in science. She has been selected by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW.