Yara Toenders receives KNAW Early Career Award
Dr. Yara Toenders has been awarded a KNAW Early Career Award by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, recognising her as one of the most promising young researchers in the Netherlands. The award honours innovative scientific talent and supports the further development of early career researchers across disciplines.
Toenders, a researcher in Clinical Psychology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and affiliated with the SYNC lab, studies the mental well-being of young people from a neurobiological to a societal level. Her work examines how factors such as sleep, social media use, music, and role models shape mood, resilience, and self-perception during adolescence.
A distinctive feature of her research is its interdisciplinary and participatory approach: young people are actively involved as partners in the research process rather than only as participants. By connecting fundamental neuroscience with lived experiences and policy contexts, her work contributes to actionable knowledge on strengthening youth mental health and well-being.
This recognition highlights the importance of youth-centred, transdisciplinary research on mental health.
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