Dr. Anouk GERAETS

Anouk Geraets is a Postdoctoral Researcher within the Institute for Research on Socio-Economic Inequality (IRSEI) in the Department of Social Sciences.

Her research focuses on the etiology and social epidemiology of cognitive ageing and depression. Results of her studies have been presented on national and international conferences and published in high impact scientific journals. Dr. Geraets is the head of the Social determinants of dementia research group from the international collaborative Deep Dementia Phenotyping (DEMON) Network. In addition, she serves as scientific advisor and reviewer and topic coordinator for scientific journals.

Dr. Geraets contributed to the theses supervision of Bachelor and Master students within Maastricht University and co-supervised doctoral candidates of the CRISP project within the University of Luxembourg over the last years. Furthermore, she supervised students and technical staff in epidemiological research settings (I.e., Generation R, The Maastricht Study). She taught at the Bachelor and Master level on research grant writing and critical appraisal of biomedical publication (Maastricht University). Furthermore, she tutored courses on mood disorders and diabetes, obesity, and lifestyle (Maastricht University), and served as a replacement tutor for the Bachelor Psychology (Erasmus University Rotterdam).

Dr. Geraets organized and presented on lay-audience symposia. She provided interviews for local video coverage, local and international print coverage, and podcasts. Her research has received far-reaching international media coverage (e.g., The Telegraph, New York Post, Daily Mail, FAZ, La Vanguardia).

She has been awarded the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) Sex and gender differences in Alzheimer’s disease PIA Best Postdoctoral Poster Competition Award (2023), the Harry Struijker-Boudier award for talented academics (HS-BAFTA) for ‘Talented PhD candidates’ (2020), Alzheimer Netherlands grant for ‘International internship for PhD candidates and PhDs’ (2020), and the PsychoSocial Aspects of Diabetes (PSAD) Early Career Researcher Travel Award (2019).

Dr. Geraets has worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher within the department of Social Sciences of University of Luxembourg and the department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology of Maastricht University. She also worked as Research Coordinator within the Radiology Department of the Erasmus Medical Centre and Psychologist in a clinical setting.

Dr. Geraets obtained a Master in Clinical Psychology from the Erasmus University Rotterdam in 2012. She wrote her PhD thesis on biological determinants of depression and received her Doctoral degree from Maastricht University in 2021.