The Maastricht Young Academy (MYA) gave the go-ahead for the competition in May. A small number of researchers tweeted photos on Twitter. Like a red velvet cheesecake with nutritional information on top (from a food scientist), puff pastry intestines (pathology researcher), and brain and neuron cookies (neuroscientist). Also, members of MYA showed their best sides as queens or kings of the kitchen, but they were excluded from the competition, because they formed the jury.
Although the winner, PhD candidate Mareike Smolka, baked beautiful and creative brain-shaped cookies that are illustrative of her field of research, she has reservations about their taste. “Not as tasty as I hoped,” she tweets.
Firstly, asking her about the disappointing taste: “They are vegan cookies; I even organized vegan cooking classes during my studies. But the fact that they don't taste that good has nothing to do with their being vegan. My oven is not working properly. I need a new one,” she apologizes chuckling.
Her cookies are Buddha-shaped heads with colourful paintings of brain scans. And no, she is not a neuroscientist who studies the effects of meditation. Smolka conducts ethnographic research, in which she acts as a participant in the world of a certain group of people. In this case, the world of contemplative science, a field that has expanded enormously in recent decades, certainly since the growth of imaging technologies such as fMRI. For example, she immersed herself in a large-scale European neuroscientific trial, the Silver Santé Study. Here she met (neuro) researchers, participants of experiments, and meditation teachers.
“I wonder what it means to be involved in these kinds of studies. How is the research carried out, what are the social or ethical aspects? Contemplative (neuro)scientists often have a personal affinity with meditation, which does not only allow them to ask relevant research questions, but also to cultivate capacities for doing ‘good research’, including Buddhist virtues of compassion and equanimity.” They take these virtues with them in their daily work; but what does it mean as an employee in a university setting where output and speed are the main focus? Does that create some kind of tension? These are the questions I'm interested in.”
Smolka aims to complete her dissertation in 2022.
The history department of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences not only provides the winner, but also number two in this competition: Lea Beiermann. She is also a PhD student and baked cookies that resemble 19th-century microscopic slides, because Beiermann is, yes, investigating the history of microscopy in the mid-19th century.
First prize? That is still a surprise, says Smolka. But probably not a new oven.