Sjoerd Beentjes
Laura O'Sullivan has written the following article as part of our series of Academic Interviews; featuring Sjoerd Beentjes!
Sjoerd Beentjes was born and raised in the Netherlands. He chose to study mathematics during his last year of high school as he had always enjoyed solving mathematical problems. As he also had a passion for physics, he elected to pursue a joint degree in mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam. This presented him with the opportunity to consider whether to pursue mathematics or physics as it gave him the flexibility to deepen his passions in both disciplines. During his undergraduate degree, he spent a year on Erasmus in Paris studying physics, finding it extremely valuable as it was his first time being able to view his home country from an outside perspective. He then continued his studies in mathematics and physics at the University of Amsterdam by completing a Master’s degree. During this time he was fortunate to gain teaching experience by tutoring undergraduate mathematics courses; this greatly aided his future decision to become an academic.
Beentjes discovered his PhD program at the University of Edinburgh through a friend, who sent him the information when he noticed that it covered a lot of topics that Beentjes frequently discussed. His decision to complete the programme was driven by his curiosity and fascination of mathematics, with the location also being a key factor as studying in Edinburgh really appealed to him.
His PhD covered algebraic geometry, where he examined geometric shapes that are solutions to sets of polynomials. A basic example is the equation of a circle, however Beentjes’ work dealt with counting solutions, where possible, to systems of equations representing curves moving through certain complex 3-dimensional spaces known as Calabi-Yau threefolds. His PhD was a very international collaboration, with his fellow students and supervisor hailing from Iran, the USA and Germany. After finishing, Beentjes opted to apply for a postdoc position at the University of Glasgow, but during the application process the supervisor, of the postdoc position, moved to the University of Edinburgh and so Beentjes remained here. He spent the year after this in Bonn, however he returned to Edinburgh at the start of the pandemic and has been here ever since.
Beentjes took time during the pandemic to reflect on his career and research, which has led to his work going in a different direction to the pure mathematics that he studied for his Master’s degree and PhD. He has since become enthralled by biomedicine and applying mathematics and statistics to this area. He is currently working with researchers based in the School of Informatics and the Institute of Genetics and Cancer, along with two PhD students; together they are analysing data from the UK biobank, consisting of DNA samples from 500,00 people, to investigate if changes in DNA are more associated with a particular trait or disease. In particular, they aim to pinpoint those DNA changes that causally affect a trait or disease.
Beentjes has found this cross-disciplinary environment compelling and supportive, and he enjoyed working alongside colleagues with different areas of expertise who can view problems from fresh perspectives. He is is a strong believer in the benefits of cross-disciplinary work and that more focus should be place on working with people from different backgrounds.
Beentjes is currently teaching a Masters course on biomedical data science, which is part of an introductory course to the programming language R in the context of applying the skills learned to biomedicine.
Outside of mathematics and academia, Beentjes has a strong interest in music and frequently plays the piano and drums. Unfortunately, due to space constraints in his flat he was forced to leave his drums kit at home in the Netherlands but he hopes to take up drumming again soon.