Özgür Kilic

Junior Researcher

Özgür Kilic (1992) is a medical doctor that started his PhD after his bachelor whilst undertaking medical internships. He practiced Taekwondo as an elite athlete on national and international level until an ankle injury ended his career in sports at the age of fifteen. During his study medicine he developed a certain interest in Orthopaedic surgery, especially in sports traumatology. During the last year of his bachelor he published a systematic review about injury prevention among volleyball players under supervision of dr. Vincent Gouttebarge. Subsequently he started a scientific internship under supervision of dr. Vincent Gouttebarge and prof. dr. Gino Kerkhoffs on the matter of mental health among professional athletes which resulted in another publication. 

After finishing his scientific internship, Özgür started with his PhD coordinating two studies: The Basketball and Muscle Injury study and the Tennis Injury Prevention: the KNLTB Tennisready ApP (TIPTAP) Trial. He did this full-time for one year and then continued his PhD part-time whilst undertaking medical internships.

After his medical internships, finishing the study of medicine (Fall 2020), he started working at the Flevoziekenhuis as a non-training Orthopaedic resident. During this residency he works on completing his PhD thesis, aiming to become an Orthopaedic Surgeon. 

His main interests are: prevention of injuries in elite athletes, mental health among elite athletes, hamstring injury prevention.

Kenny Lauf

Junior Researcher

Kenny Lauf (1991) is a Medical Doctor and is currently working as a PhD-candidate at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery under supervision of prof. dr. Kerkhoffs and prof. dr. Tol. He is especially interested in sports injuries and is involved in research focusing on hamstring muscle injuries with the avulsion of proximal hamstring tendons as the main research topic.

Lukas Verweij

Junior Researcher

Lukas started out as a research assistant at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis during his bachelor of Medicine. After obtaining the bachelor degree, a collaboration between the Amsterdam Shoulder and Elbow Center of Expertise (ASECE), the Department of Orthopedic Surgery of the Amsterdam UMC and Biomedical Engineering Department of the Amsterdam UMC was started to apply for the AMC MD-PhD scholarship (https://www.amc.nl/web/leren/graduate-school/phd-1/mdphd-scholarship.htm). The application was successful and he is currently working on the project at the Amsterdam UMC, which primary focus is recurrence risk in shoulder instability.

Thomas Baltes

Junior Researcher

Thomas P.A. Baltes (1993) is a medical doctor and clinical researcher at Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar. He is currently enrolled as external PhD-candidate at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery of the Amsterdam UMC. 

With a special interest in Sports Traumatology and Foot and Ankle injuries, his PhD-thesis will focus on the diagnosis of acute ligamentous ankle injuries.

If you want to know more about his research and publications, it might be worth to check out his Researchgate or Orcid profile.

Amber von Gerhardt

Junior Researcher

Amber von Gerhardt is a Medical Doctor and a former international judo athlete, currently working as a PhD-Candidate at the department of Orthopaedic Surgery under supervision of prof. Kerkhoffs and prof. Tol.

Her main research focuses on performance optimization and prevention of musculoskeletal injuries in judo athletes.

Tristan Buck

Junior Researcher

Tristan Buck is a medical student in training. Before medical school, he obtained his degree in Physical Therapy. After finishing his bachelor in medical school, he started as research student at the department of Orthopaedics. His period as research student resulted in a position as PhD student under supervision of prof. dr. Kerkhoffs. Due to his interest in clinical research, he is a Clinical Epidemiologist in training at the University of Amsterdam. 

He is especially interested in sports traumatology. His work at this dynamic research department is focused on OsteoChondral Defects (OCDs) of the talus. More specific, his research will be about rehabilitation and etiology of OCDs.

Faten Smiley

Junior Researcher

Faten Smiley (1984) is currently working as a Senior Research & Education Specialist at Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar. She completed her Masters of Science in Epidemiology in 2015 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her PhD research focuses on the impact of continuing medical education on clinical practice in sports medicine.

Benjamin Bowtell

Junior Researcher

Benjamin Bowtell is a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist, having completed his Master’s at Curtin University in Western Australia. Currently part of the Performance Medicine team for Cirque du Soleil’s Bazzar, he has previously worked as a Senior in the Emergency Department, for the Department of Defense, the Gold Coast Commonwealth games, Invictus Games and he continues to work as a National Medical Paralympic Classifier. Having sat on the WA board for Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Australia and Sports Medicine Australia, and the Australian National Educational Quality Standing Committee. His main research topic is the return to performance and impact of psychosocial factors on prognosis.

Sandro Vella

Junior Researcher 

Sandro Vella is a Maltese physiotherapist. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Physiotherapy from Malta in 2009. Since then he has been working in different areas related to physiotherapy, however his passion is working in the field of sports. In view of this, he continued his studies in the area of sports medicine earned his Master’s degree in Sports and Exercise Medicine from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2016. He is currently the physiotherapist of the Maltese Under-21 Male National Football Team. During this time, he became interested in the field of injury prevention and as a result, is currently reading for his PhD with Cardiff Metropolitan University in the field of injury prevention. The aim of his project is to develop and implement a context-relevant longitudinal injury monitoring system for the Maltese Football National Teams.

Sofie Nelis

Junior Researcher

Sofie Nelis (1988) is a physician and PhD student working at Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar; one of the 10 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Centers of Research Excellence for the Prevention of Injury and Promotion of Health in Athletes.

Her research topic is implementing shared decision-making in sports medicine.

Joep Suskens

Junior Researcher

Joep Suskens (1994) is a human movement scientist and PhD-candidate at the department of orthopedic surgery under supervision of prof. Kerkhoffs and prof. Tol. Since 2018, he has been involved in the Basketball Muscle & Injury (BAMI) study, wherein he is coordinating three sub-studies: Hamstring Injury Prevention (RCT; healthy male basketball players), Calf Injury Prevention (RCT; healthy (fe)male basketball players), and Hamstring Injury Recovery (OPT; monitoring all kinds of athletes with an acute hamstring strain injury).

His main research is about alternations in muscle fiber architecture (derived from DT-MRI); after a period of eccentric loading, or during the recovery phase after suffering from a muscle strain.

If you want to know more about his research, please check their website.

Sietske Luijten

Junior Researcher

Sietske Luijten (1996) is currently working as a PhD student on the Tailored Injury Prevention in Adapted Sports (TIPAS) project at the Department of Public and Occupational Health of the Amsterdam UMC. She completed her Masters in Human Movement Science in 2020 and the Masters Epidemiology in 2023 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. The main aim of the PhD project is to reduce the number of injuries due to sports and exercise in adapted sports through early recognition of health problems and providing tailored preventive advice.

If you want to know more about her research and publications, it might be worth to check out her ORCID profile.

s.luijten@amsterdamumc.nl

sietske.luijten@gmail.com

Willem Heijboer

Junior Researcher

Willem Heijboer (1985) is a physiotherapist and clinical epidemiologist. Between 2018 and 2020 Willem worked as a clinical researcher and physiotherapist at Aspetar’s Sports Groin Pain Centre in Doha, Qatar. He currently works as a clinical researcher at the department of Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine of the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, and as a physiotherapist at REHABfysio. His PhD-research focusses on the diagnosis of longstanding groin pain in athletes. He has a research- and clinical interest in football related injuries, with a focus on groin- and knee injuries.

If you want to know more about his research and publications, please check out his Google Scholar profile profile.

Anne-Sophie van der Post

Junior Researcher

Anne-Sophie van der Post (1990) is former professional field hockey player and currently works as an MD PhD student on the Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex (TFCC) at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Location AMC under the supervision of professor Maas.

Her research focusses on redefining the normal TFCC by studying the fetal morphologic TFCC development and systematically assessing the normal TFCC appearance on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in asymptomatic children and young gymnasts. The aim of her project is to acquire more knowledge on the normal TFCC in order to enable a better distinction between pathologic and non-pathologic TFCC variations seen on diagnostic MRI. Additionally, she is doing research on a new MRI technique in order to improve diagnostic accuracy of detecting TFCC pathology.

Anne-Sophie is also involved in education by coordinating the annual elective course “Doctors & Elite Sports” in collaboration with the Academic Center for Evidence-based Sports medicine (ACES) for second year medical students. This course focusses on several aspects of sports injuries as well as the personal role of doctors in sports medicine.

Rik Kraan

Junior Researcher

Rik Bart Jozef Kraan (1991) is a medical doctor interested in the health of the musculoskeletal system, especially the upper extremity, in young athletes involved in organized sports. Furthermore, Rik has a strong statistical background and is skilled in applying the newest data science- and machine learning techniques. In his PhD-project he combines his interest and skills by evaluating cross-sectional images of the wrist of young elite wrist-loading athletes. The project is focused on finding new imaging-based strategies to identify overuse injuries of the wrist in young athletes in an early stage, both morphological and quantitatively and eventually provide detailed and individualized prognostic information for injured athletes and their physicians.

Ton Leenen

Junior Researcher

Ton Leenen (1990) holds a B.Sc. degree in Physiotherapy with special interests in orthopedics and (top)sports injuries from the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and a M.Sc. degree in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Sciences (related to Human Movement Sciences) from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Ton is now a PhD student at the Vrije University Amsterdam conducting research on the topic’s injury prevention and return-to-sport in baseball and tennis. He is an active member of the Amsterdam Movement Sciences PhD Committee and the PhD Educational Committee of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Ton also holds the PhD chairmanship as a representative for the PhD’s of the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences.

His main research topics are: 1. Prevention of sports and physical activity related injuries in baseball and tennis; and 2. Return-to-sport after sustaining a sports or physical activity related injury. He supervises several (inter)national Master students of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Delft University of Technology and Bachelor student’s physiotherapy of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, divided across these two topics. Within the department he fulfils teaching responsibilities for the faculty Human Movement Sciences.

Ana Monteiro Pereira

Junior Researcher

Ana Monteiro Pereira (1989) is a family medicine resident that is starting a parallel path in sports, physical activity and health scene. After finishing a sports medicine master, she started working as team physician in the Portuguese Football Federation as well as a PhD in Sports Sciences (ISMAI), in collaboration with the Portuguese Football School. For her PhD project, she aims to develop a baseline epidemiological study on eSports participants, providing scientifically-based arguments for the discussion on the health effects of eSports participation and preparing for future concerns of eSports professionalization and high demands of their practice.

Jari Dahmen

Junior Researcher

Jari Dahmen (1995) is a medical student in training finishing his degree mid-2020. Before initiating the study of Medicine, Jari studied Liberal Arts and Sciences at the Amsterdam University College (AUC). Here, Dahmen started studying osteochondral lesions in the ankle with Prof. Kerkhoffs and Dr. Stufkens, which resulted in an appointment as a PhD-researcher.

His main research interest is based in the foot and ankle sports traumatology, mainly focusing on osteochondral lesions in the ankle. Additionally, Jari’s interest lies in the assessment of effectiveness of different surgical treatment options for foot and ankle problems through systematic reviews of the literature. Being part of Team OCD (OsteoChondral Defect), Jari happily enjoys doing research within the team.

Carel Viljoen

Junior Researcher

Carel Viljoen (1986) is the head physiotherapist at the Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute (SEMLI), an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Research Center in South Africa. At the University of Pretoria, he is a member of the Postgraduate Research Committee of the School of Healthcare Sciences (SOHCS), and a lecturer in the Department of Physiotherapy.

He is currently doing a joint PhD between the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the University of Pretoria with his main research focusing on injury prevention in the sport of trail running.

If you want to know more about his research and publications, it might be worth to check out his ORCID profile.

Anne van der Made

Junior Researcher

Anne van der Made (1990) is a PhD-candidate and orthopedic surgery resident. He studied Medicine at the University of Amsterdam and graduated with honors (Cum Laude) in 2015. Since his scientific internship at the department of orthopedic surgery (AMC, Amsterdam) sparked his interest for sports injuries, he has been involved in research focusing on hamstring muscle injury with an emphasis on tendon injury.