{"id":147972,"date":"2022-12-12T14:52:23","date_gmt":"2022-12-12T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=147972"},"modified":"2026-02-10T16:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T15:41:36","slug":"hanan-el-marroun-ive-been-straddling-two-worlds-from-a-tender-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/12\/12\/hanan-el-marroun-ive-been-straddling-two-worlds-from-a-tender-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Hanan El Marroun: \u2018I’ve been straddling two worlds from a tender age\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a young, female professor of Moroccan origin from the Schilderswijk district in The Hague, Hanan El Marroun is a role model to many. Last month, she received the FAME Athena Award for her work for female academics. Although she embraces her role model status, her primary goal is to share knowledge on a subject she finds incredibly interesting: the human brain.<\/p>\n

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Hanan El Marroun in Erasmus MC<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

\u201cRemember to do your best\u201d, Hanan El Marroun (41) tells her young daughters every day before they head off to school. Her parents would often tell her the same thing when she was a child. \u201cIt was instilled in me from a young age\u201d, she says. \u201cI\u2019m thorough in everything I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has paid dividends. El Marroun has been professor of Biological Psychology at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences since March last year. In addition, she has been active as chair of VENA, Erasmus MC\u2019s network for female academics, for several years now. This has won her the FAME Athena Award, an annual award presented during the Dies Natalis celebrations to people who have nurtured female talent within the university. She has also been writing columns for Erasmus Magazine since last month.<\/p>\n

Black box<\/h2>

As a scholar, El Marroun has spent more than fifteen years now studying the topic that fascinates her most: the human brain. In particular, she looks at how that \u2018incredibly flexible, resilient organ\u2019 develops under the influence of addictive substances, such as alcohol and nicotine.<\/p>\n\n\t

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Lees meer<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t