Dr Lizza Hendriks (1981) has worked at Maastricht UMC + as a lung specialist since 2012. Her focus area is thoracic oncology, in particular prevention and optimal treatment of brain metastases in lung cancer. In 2017, she earned her PhD on this topic. To gain in-depth knowledge of both research and medical oncology, she worked one year as a postdoc at the Gustave Roussy Institute in France.

Since 2019, Dr Hendriks has coordinated the clinical lung cancer research of the lung diseases department in Maastricht. She does this in addition to her clinical tasks and teaching. Currently, Dr Hendriks supervises six PhD students.

Her research ambition is to develop personalised therapy (in terms of biomarkers and psychosocial and cognitive capacity) with a focus on prevention/optimal treatment of brain metastases, while preserving neurocognition. To achieve this, immunotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy are applied, including the use of advanced imaging analysis techniques such as radiomics.

Dr Hendriks received several abstract awards as well as the Dirkje Postma Talent Award (incentive subsidy for her own research line) in 2019. She is (co-)author of more than 80 peer-reviewed articles.

The Young Academy

The Young Academy consists of talented researchers who share a broad interest in scientific practice, science policy and science communication. The Young Academy is an independent body within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. Membership lasts for five years.

Within De Jonge Akademie, Lizza Hendriks is particularly committed to early career policy, getting young people interested in and motivated for research. She will also contribute to the new Recognition and Rewards policy, with a focus on policy for physician researchers.