The Young Academy has appointed ten new members, including EEMCS scientist Cynthia Liem. The organisation has a total of fifty members. Annually ten members leave to make place for new members. Scientists on every subject that were promoted less than ten years ago and have proven themselves in their scientific field are eligible for one of the fifty coveted spots.
Cynthia Liem is a scientist in the intelligent systems department, a member of the multimedia computing group and a classical pianist. Within the Young Academy, Liem wants to commit herself to increasing digital literacy and making data driven science and decision making more accessible for a broader audience. That Liem was a promising scientist did not go unnoticed for long. In 2008 she was awarded with the Google Anita Borg Scholarship.
After that she kept going. During her career Liem was nominated and awarded with a wide array of grants and prizes. In 2018 she managed to procure a Veni for her research on recommendation systems in search engines. Currently, Liem is working mostly on her research on validity and validating: do scientist measure (and predict) what they actually want to measure? Additionally, she is doing research on the algorithms behind search engines. She is also working on multiple NWO projects and works together with prominent partners such as the Royal Library and Muziekweb.
Apart from being a gifted scientist, Liem is also a professional pianist. During her studies in computer science, she also studied at the Conservatorium in The Hague. There she got both her BMus and MMus in Classical Music piano. During her musical career she formed a group with violinist Emmy Storms. Together they form the successful duo: Magma DUO. Liem and Storms played multiple concerts throughout the Netherlands.