People
Program team¶
Work packages¶
The program activities are divided in five workpackages.
User panel¶
Teachers
Students
Advisory board¶
Timon Idema¶
Dr. Timon Idema is an associate professor at the Department of Bionanoscience at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands. Before starting his research group in Delft in 2012, Idema obtained his PhD in theoretical biophysics at the Instituut Lorentz of Leiden University (The Netherlands) and worked at the Institut Curie (Paris, France) and the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA).
Since the fall of 2020, Idema leads the joint-degree MSc Nanobiology programme of TU Delft and the Erasmus MC Rotterdam. He also teaches various courses at TU Delft, ranging from introductory physics to courses on soft matter and geometry that take students to the cutting edge of current research. For his educational work, Idema received various prizes, including the faculty of Applied Sciences Teacher of the Year in 2019, the J.B. Westerdijkprize in 2020, a TU Delft education fellowship (2020-2022), an open education ambassador award (2023), the SURF education award (2023), and a Comenius Leadership Fellow grant in 2025.
Idema’s research group at the Department of Bionanoscience studies collective dynamics in biologically motivated systems, ranging from membrane-mediated interactions between proteins at the nano scale to tissues and populations at the micro- and macro scale. A theorist himself, Idema frequently collaborates and co-publishes with experimental groups. For more details on his group’s research and teaching activities, visit their website at idemalab.tudelft.nl.
Carola van der Muren¶
Drs. Carola van der Muren started working at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in 2018, as Coordinator for online and blended education. Before taking this position, she worked at Inter IKEA Systems (IKEA) in different roles connected to implementing, coordinating and maintaining IKEA’s global training platform. She gained a lot of experience in developing, organising and facilitating (inter)national workshops and training courses. Van der Muren obtained a degree in Biology in 2006 at Utrecht University. In her spare time she is still much passionate about nature (and photography).
In the past years at TU Delft she was leading several course teams in ‘blended’ projects (course design and development), was project lead for the development of the Pre-University Physics MOOC and for the development and implementation of an online platform and online education modules for the BSc Applied Physics StudieKeuzeCheck. As process manager (2021-2023) for the development of the joined degree MSc program QIST, Van der Muren was coordinating course and curriculum development, as well as the accreditation process, including (external) communication, stakeholder and risk management. In her projects she is always happy to work with groups of enthusiastic students: over the years she has been hiring, training, coaching and coordinating over 70 students as projects assistants as well as two LDE trainees. In her last projects Van der Muren worked close together with lecturers of several TU Delft faculties in supporting them to develop Open Interactive Textbooks.
It is her ambition to contribute to the innovation of education by supporting lecturers hands-on in all kind of ways to make educational materials more interactive.
As program coordinator for COMBINE, her role includes:
Organising and coordinating support (student assistants)
Keeping overview of activity planning, timeline and progress
Communication and information
Margreet Docter¶
Dr. ir. Margreet Docter is a lecturer in the BSc Nanobiology program at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft); she is teaching and continuously updating the (practical) course Electronic Instrumentation for second-year BSc students, and is an instructor in the first-year Programming Foundations course. She is the coordinator of the Honours Nanobiology BSc, which offers additional challenges to the top 10% of Nanobiology students. Before working as a lecturer, Docter obtained her PhD in Physics (2008) and a MSc in Education at TU Delft.
She was recognised for her excellent teaching skills as Teacher of the Year in 2021. She is always highly interested in educational innovation: e.g. she led the development of a Virtual Reality application for practicing classroom management within the Teacher Education program at TU Delft.
Her engagement with Teaching Assistants (TAs) deepened during her Senior University Teaching Qualification (SUTQ, 2024), which led her to initiate and lead the development of the Advanced Training Program for TAs. She also initiated the master’s elective Student Teachers in Engineering Education, in close collaboration with lecturers from Science &Engeneering Education. These projects are based on co-creation with teaching assistants, which Margreet strongly encourages, as she experienced that students can and want to contribute to their (and others) education. This vision aligns well with ‘Students Taking Responsible’, within the TU Delft-wide ‘Innovations in Delft Engineering Education’ (IDEE) program, as well with this COMBINE program.
Freek Pols¶
Dr. ir. Freek Pols is an assistant professor in the Science & Engineering Education department of Applied Sciences. He worked as a secondary school physics teacher for 10 years and transferred to university education in 2019 where he became the coordinator in the first-year physics lab course. His research focusses on teaching scientific inquiry as well as the role and promotion of open education.
He began using Jupyter books to create materials for his own courses, contributed to lowering technical barriers through the development of TeachBooks, and explored the capabilities of Jupyter Book 2.0. His experience in building tutorials, plugins, and templates — along with his ongoing focus on enhancing functionality and reducing technical hurdles — makes him a valuable asset to this program.
Calvin Rans¶
Dr. Calvin Rans holds a dual appointment within TU Delft as an Associate Professor within the Department of Aerospace Structures & Materials and as a Senior Blended Learning Developer within Teaching and Learning Services. He received his PhD in 2007 from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada in the area of Fatigue and Damage Tolerance of Aircraft Structures. Immediately following, he started his academic career at TU Delft where he continued his research into failure and quickly drew parallels between the pursuit to understand and learn from failure in his research and the need for students to encounter and overcome failure in their studies.
Educational innovation and the delivery of engaging and fun learning experiences has been a driving force in Calvin’s career. From designing an innovative group-based master track core, to utilizing the power of story-telling to maintain student engagement during the COVID pandemic, to co-creating a student self-reflection journal to help transition students from high school to university, Calvin has never shied away from experimenting in his education. His efforts have led to numerous educational awards and nominations including the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering Teacher of the Year in 2018, TUDelft Teacher of the Year in 2018, Nederlands Docent van het Jaar 2019, edX Prize Nominee for the course Introduction to Aerospace Structures & Materials, and an Open Education Ambassador Award (2024).
Since 2025, Calvin has joined Teaching and Learning Services at TU Delft to focus full time on helping teachers across the entire TU Delft innovate and improve their education. He is excited to be part of the COMBINE team and to be part of making co-creation in education the norm rather than the exception at TU Delft.