Bart Penders

Bart was born on September 26, 1980 in Geleen (the Netherlands). From 1998 to 2003 he studied biology at Nijmegen University (currently: Radboud Univerity of Nijmegen, the Netherlands). He specialised in evolutionary microbiology and extremophile microbiology, the former at Nijmegen and the latter at Regensburg University (Germany). After having fulfilled all requirements for obtaining a Masters degree, he enrolled in the experimental 'Biology and Communication' curriculum. He received his MSc cum laude in 2003.

Subsequently, he moved into Science and Technology Studies and based upon research conducted in this field, he received his PhD degree in 2008 from Maastricht University (the Netherlands). After holding positions as post-doctoral research fellow at Maastricht University and Radboud University Nijmegen, he now is an assitant professor of Biomedicine and Society at Maastricht University. His research deals with the normative effects of large-scale science. He is mainly interested in how facts, knowledge and norms co-evolve, as well as in the political effects of this co-evolution. He currently studies these dynamics in industrial R&D contexts. His other interests include knowledge production on the boundaries of laboratory and computation, as well as the interaction of science, social science and the humanities.

Bart teaches and supervises Bachelor's, Master's and PhD students at Maastricht Universitty. He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Science and Technology Studies at Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany, in 2008 and at the School for Social and Political Sciences at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2010.