Tom van Grootel

Neuroscientist / Data scientist

Tom van Grootel, PhD
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxx Utrecht, NL

T: +31 six 5O5 373 O6
E: tgrootel-at-gmxxl.cxm

Education

Data Scientist Professional, DataCamp

7/2021 - 11/2021

Program to certify data science skills through timed assessment, coding challenges and case study with technical report and non-technical presentation. [white paper] [certificate]

PhD in Biophysics, Radboud University, Donders Centre for Neuroscience, Nijmegen, NL

2006 - 2011

Award: Prompt Ph.D. scheme, Donders institute.
Thesis: On the Role of Eye and Head Position on Spatial Localisation Behaviour. [pdf]

Master Biology, Radboud University, Faculty of Science, Dept. of Biology, Nijmegen, NL

1999 - 2006

Work experience

General employee, GGD regio Utrecht, Coronabedrijf

2/2021 - Present

Facilitating vaccinations to large and diverse groups of visitors at vaccination locations in the Utrecht region during crisis.
Careful and responsible handling of vaccines and applying the four-eyes principle in the process.
Answer questions and provide information to visitors about vaccine and COVID-19.
Request documents and information from visitors.
Provide first aid for acute side effects after vaccination.
Monitoring health status during a large-scale event in a crisis setting.
Senior level user of vaccination registration software.
Support administrative staff.
Oversight and fraud detection during registration of vaccinations.
Issuing vaccination certificates to visitors who have been vaccinated outside Europe (EU/EFTA).
Scrutinize validity of vaccination registrations.

Senior data analyst, Gemeente Amsterdam, Cluster sociaal, Onderwijs, jeugd, zorg en diversiteit and Informatie, Onderzoek, Informatie en Statistiek, Amsterdam, NL

9/2019 - 12/2020

Civil servant for the largest Dutch municipality.
Responsible for analyses supporting back office and policy makers.
Setting up data analysis infrastructure.
Member of scrum team “Zicht en grip op sociaal”. Analyze and maintain high value data set combining available information of citizens.
Responsible for analysis of very sensitive data (CBS microdata).

Data scientist, Gemeente Stichtse Vecht, Maarssen, NL

1/2018 - 6/2019

Civil servant for a municipality.
Advisor and key contributor of data driven policy making.
Project leader (product owner) in collaboration with academic partner (Utrecht Data Scool, Utrecht University) to employ machine learning in the social domain. Students of different background (Arts, History, Artificial Intelligence) developed cluster analyses and decision tree models. This was a full data science trajectory from data retrieval, cleaning, modeling and the results were presented to policy makers.
As evangelist for the data driven ambition being in contact with stakeholders across all levels in the organization.
Maintaining contact with external partners. Representing Stichtse Vecht at conferences and meetings.
Follow developments in academia and industry regarding tooling and data science.
Developed several data analysis products for business, council, mayor’s office and other organizational levels.

Postdoctoral fellow, New York University, Center for Neural Science, Visual Neuroscience Laboratory, New York, NY, USA

12/2012 - 10/2019

Neuroscience of visual development: Uncovered the link between the amblyopic impairment of detecting visual motion and the neural activity in the cortex by performing electrophysiological recordings (single units).
Performed EEG source localization guided by anatomical MRI images. Several tissue types deflect the source signal in different ways. By knowing the anatomical compartments, source localization technique attempts to solve this inverse problem.
Examined the development of handedness. The use of a preferred hand was tracked longitudinally throughout development.

Postdoctoral fellow, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, DE

5/2011 - 12/2012

Longitudinally tracked visual development. Brain activity was recorded in a high resolution 7T fMRI scanner.
Recorded neuronal activity in a visual memory task.

Internships

Master Biophysics, Vision and Cognition Group of the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute (IOI), Amsterdam, NL

2003 - 2004

Examined the effect of visual grouping on neuronal activity in inferior temporal cortex.
Acquired reaction times subjects performing a visual grouping task.

Master Biophysics, Auditory Research Lab, Department of Medical Physics and Biophysics, University of Nijmegen., Nijmegen, NL

2002 - 2003

Certificates and courses

Scrum, Zilverline, 4-06-2018
Big Data & Data Science Bootcamp, Anchormen, 5-07-2018
Data Awareness Dag, Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, 2018
SQL fundamenten, Vijfhart, 22-11-2018
Machine Learning, Stanford Online, Coursera, 05-06-2019, [certificate]
Git Complete: The definitive, step-by-step guide to Git, Udemy, 24-09-2020, [certificate]
Extended first aid, Nederlandse Rode Kruis, 30-05-2021, nrk10088102-71892
Data Analyst with Python, DataCamp, 28-05-2019, [certificate]
Data Scientist with Python, DataCamp, 4-06-2019, [certificate]
Python Programmer, DataCamp, 29-05-2019, [certificate]
R Programming, DataCamp, 16-12-2018, [certificate]

Skills

Languages

English: ■■■■■
German: ■■■◧□
Dutch: ■■■■■

Office

MS Office: ■■■■■
Adobe Illustrator: ■■■■■
Adobe InDesign: ■■■■■
Adobe Photoshop: ■■■■□
Power BI: ■■■■◧

Programming

Python: ■■■■■
Jupyter: ■■■■■
Matlab: ■■■■■
Git: ■■■■□
R: ■■■■◧
SQL: ■■■■□
Shell scripting: ■■■■◧
C++: ■■■□□
js: ■■■□□
java: ■■□□□
ruby: ■■□□□
hadoop: ■■■□□
scala: ■■□□□
SAP (IBM): ■■■◧□

In Vivo

Animal Welfare: ■■■■■
Electrophysiology: ■■■■■
Anesthesia: ■■■■□
Surgery: ■■■■◧
fMRI: ■■■■◧

Technical

BrainVoyager: ■■■■■
HTML: ■■■■□
CSS: ■■■■□
FSL: ■■■■□
FreeSurfer: ■■■■□

Teaching and supervising

Product owner, Gemeente Stichtse Vecht , Maarssen, NL

2018 - 2019

Supervise students enrolled in a data analyses program by the Utrecht University.

Senior researcher, New York University , New York, NY, USA

2011 - 2018

Assist and supervise undergraduate and PhD projects.

Teacher, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, DE

2012

EEG course for biology students

PhD, Radboud University, Department of Biophysics, Nijmegen, NL

2006 - 2011

Supervised master student projects.

Teacher, Radboud University, Faculty of Science and Medical Faculty, Nijmegen, NL

2005 - 2009

Biophysics course for master students of biology and molecular life sciences. By using Matlab Simulink the linear system theory was explained.
Perception course for third year medical students. The auditory and the visual system were covered.
Practical course of the vestibular system for third year medical students.
Biophysics for bachelor students of biology. Basic and applied mathematics were covered.

Teaching Assistant, Radboud University, Subfaculty of Biology , Nijmegen, NL

2002 - 2005

Several Biology courses

Volunteering and extracurricular

Volunteer, PeaceTech Lab NL

2/2020 - Present

Data science for good

Member, Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten, Expertise Groep Data Science

8/2019 - 12/2020

Data science professionals in government led by VNG

Contributor, GitHub Training Kit

2017

Contributions to Open source course on Git and Github

Moderator, Donders Institute, Nijmegen, NL

2019 - 2011

Moderator of Matlab Knowledge Database

Organizer, Stichting Science Café Nijmegen, Nijmegen, NL

2006 - 2007

Reviewer, Several journals

2011 - 2018

Peer reviewing manuscripts

Publications

Journal articles

Van Grootel TJ, Meeson A, Munk MHJ, Kourtzi Z, Movshon JA, Logothetis NK & Kiorpes L (2017). Development of visual cortical function in infant macaques: A BOLD fMRI study. PLoS ONE 12, e0187942. Available at: [doi]

Van Grootel T & Kiorpes L (2015). Neuronal response properties in area MT of an awake amblyopic macaque monkey. Journal of Vision 15, 651–651. Available at: [doi]

Van Grootel TJ, Van der Willigen RF & Van Opstal AJ (2012). Experimental Test of Spatial Updating Models for Monkey Eye-Head Gaze Shifts. PLoS ONE 7, e47606. Available at: [doi]

Van Grootel TJ, Van Wanrooij MM & Van Opstal AJ (2011). Influence of static eye and head position on tone-evoked gaze shifts. J Neurosci 31, 17496–17504. Available at: [doi]

Van Barneveld DCPBM, Van Grootel TJ, Alberts B & Van Opstal AJ (2011). The effect of head roll on perceived auditory zenith. Exp Brain Res 213, 235–243. Available at: [doi]

Bremen P, Van der Willigen RF, Van Wanrooij MM, Schaling DF, Martens MB, Van Grootel TJ & van Opstal AJ (2010). Applying double-magnetic induction to measure head-unrestrained gaze shifts: calibration and validation in monkey. Biol Cybern 103, 415–432. Available at: [doi]

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2010). Human sound-localization behavior accounts for ocular drift. J Neurophysiol 103, 1927–1936. Available at: [doi]

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2009). Human sound-localization behaviour after multiple changes in eye position. Eur J Neurosci 29, 2233–2246. Available at: [doi]

Vliegen J, Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2005). Gaze orienting in dynamic visual double steps. J Neurophysiol 94, 4300–4313. Available at: [doi]

Vliegen J, Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2004). Dynamic sound localization during rapid eye-head gaze shifts. J Neurosci 24, 9291–9302. Available at: [doi]

Conferences

Van Grootel TJ & Kiorpes L (2015). Neuronal response properties in area MT of an awake amblyopic macaque monkey. Vision Sciences Society. St. Pete, FL, USA. Available at: [link]

Van Grootel TJ, Movshon JA & Kiorpes L (2015). Binocular imbalance in macaque MT in strabismic amblyopia. Society for Neuroscience, 2015. Chicago, IL, USA. Available at: [link]

Van Grootel TJ, Meeson A, Munk MMH, Kourtzi Z, Movshon JA, Logothetis NK & Kiorpes L (2012). Longitudinal fMRI study of cortical development in young monkeys. Society for Neuroscience, 2012. New Orleans, LA, USA. Available at: [link]

Van Grootel TJ, Van Wanrooij MM, Smeenk M & Van Opstal AJ (2010). Frequency-dependent compensation of initial eye and head orientation in human sound-localisation. Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, 2010. Amsterdam, FENS 2010. Available at: [link]

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2010). Measure Head-free Gaze Shifts in Macaque Monkeys by Using a Double Magnetic Induction Technique. Primate neurobiology conference. Tuebingen Univ.

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2009). Human Sound Localization Behavior After Prolonged Eccentric Fixation. Dag van de Perceptie. Soesterberg, TNO.

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2008). Compensation of eye position in human sound localization for dynamic and static fixation. Society for Neuroscience, 2008. Washington, DC, USA. Available at: [link]

Van Grootel TJ & Van Opstal AJ (2008). Human sound-localization after multiple changes in eye position. Dag van de Perceptie. Soesterberg, TNO.

Vliegen J, Van Grootel TJ, Versnel H & Van Opstal AJ (2003). Dynamic human sound localization during head-free gaze shifts. Society for Neuroscience, 2003. New Orleans, LA, USA.

Lectures

Van Grootel TJ (2011). The role of eye and head orientation in spatial localization. Available at: [link] friko at Tuebingen, MPI for Biol. Cyb. (2011-04-08)

Van Grootel TJ (2010). How does the brain solve the spatial constancy problem? On the Role of Eye Position and Target Updating. Lecture at Cardiff Univ., School of Biosci. (2010-11-29)

Van Grootel TJ (2010). On the role of eye position and target updating. Donders Discussion at Nijmegen, Donders Institute (2010-10-22)

Van Grootel TJ (2008). Human Sound-Localization Behavior After Multiple Changes in Eye Position. Auditory system study group (WAS) at Amsterdam, VU (2008-11-10)