BISS is an extraordinary group at Brightlands Smart Services Campus in Heerlen. Professors and researchers from different disciplines work together at the campus on ways to apply data and technology to solve challenges in the outside world. The team consists of approximately 20 employees, 10 of whom work full time and addresses commercial or social questions and issues. One example is how technology or data science can contribute to reducing global poverty.

Judith Kamalski: “We work with others because we believe that technology or data science alone is rarely the solution to a problem. You can build the best tool or design the most amazing technology, but if no one uses it if there’s no support for it, or if it’s used wrong or is questionable in a legal sense, it won’t be a success. This is why you have to unite all of these fields of expertise.”

Communication person

That requires special communication skills. Judith Kamalski has those skills. She is fluent in the languages of business and science. She got her doctorate in psycholinguistics, and in her dissertation, she explains how to use language to persuade people. In addition to business communication, she also studied French language and literature.

“The one thing you need to know about me is that I have an academic heart but a commercial head,” she laughs. “Depending on the day and the context, sometimes this order reverses.”

Her particular love for academia is mainly based on the organisational aspects. “In academia, you have to be able to focus for long periods, and I like to look at the broader picture. On the other hand, supporting academia and applying my experience in business to act as a bridge between the two sectors is a great fit for me. At BISS, these two worlds come together really well.”

  Longer article in the Brightlands newsletter