Sophie van Baalen

Sophie van Baalen is senior reseacher medical technologies at the Rathenau institute.

Expertise

Sophie studies various developments in the field of medical technology, such as germline modification, human/non-human combinations and medical innovations. She is interested in the practices surrounding these developments, how they will change and the societal debate about it.

Training and career

Sophie studied Technical Medicine and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Twente. In her doctoral research she studied how medical professionals use and construct knowledge in practice, and what role medical imaging technologies (such as X-ray and MRI) play in this. She also researched what expertise entails, for specialists and for interdisciplinary experts. In addition, she worked on a new MRI method to visualize and characterize kidney tumors.